5 Popular Foods That Contain Red Dye No 3

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on January 15, 2025, a change in its stance on red dye No. 3, an artificial dye frequently used to tint consumables a bright red color. Beginning no later than January 2028, the dye, often seen on ingredient lists as Red 3 or FD&C Red No. 3, will no longer be authorized as an addition to food, beverages, and ingestible medicines sold in the United States.

The ban comes several decades after studies linked Red 3 exposure to thyroid cancer in lab rats. Although the FDA maintains that these studies have limited relevance to humans since the way red dye No. 3 causes cancer in rats is impossible to replicate in humans, the same studies previously led the FDA to ban red dye No. 3 in cosmetics. No studies have specifically linked red dye No. 3 to cancer in humans.

On top of the U.S. cosmetics ban, the European Union banned nearly all consumer uses of red dye No. 3 in 1994. The dye is also illegal in other major markets, including but not limited to Japan, China, and Australia. Because of this, Red 3 is not as common as it could be, since some U.S.-based international brands have already altered recipes to keep access to foreign markets. Still, several popular foods currently contain the dye, including flavored milk, sprinkles, candy, ice cream bars, and gum. 

Nesquik strawberry milk

As a preeminent brand of flavored milk, Nesquik was a pioneer in the strawberry milk market. Its first powdered strawberry drink mix appeared in 1960, but today the brand is perhaps most recognizable for its single-serve bottles of ready-to-drink flavored milk — and the strawberry version contains FD&C Red No. 3, the only specifically-named artificial dye in its ingredient list.

Despite the name and flavoring, Strawberry Nesquik contains no actual strawberries. The strawberry taste comes from an unspecified combination of "natural and artificial flavor," and its attractive electric pink color is the work of Red 3, one of the final ingredients listed on the package. Its placement indicates the relative amount of dye is small, but the brand will still need to find a replacement once the FDA ban goes into effect. Luckily, Nesquik is no stranger to changes in its formulas so hopefully whatever necessary changes occur as a result of the ban will be met with positive reactions from fans. 

Betty Crocker rainbow sprinkles

Rainbow sprinkles are a classic topping for ice cream cones, a critical ingredient for funfetti cake, and — at least sometimes — a vehicle for red dye No. 3. Betty Crocker, one of the biggest home baking brands, includes Red 3 in its rainbow sprinkles.

Red 3 is likely the color source for individual red sprinkles within the Betty Crocker blend, and possibly pink and orange sprinkles as well. Interestingly, Betty Crocker rainbow sprinkles also contain Red 40 lake, one of the alternatives to red dye No. 3 that some manufacturers use instead. Whether the brand will convert to all Red 40 lake due to the Red 3 ban is unknown.

In jurisdictions where Red 3 is already banned, sprinkles have gotten some businesses in trouble in the past. In 2021, a popular bakery in the United Kingdom was forced to alter or remove several items from its menu because of imported American sprinkles that contained the prohibited dye.

Brach's candy corn

Love it or hate it, candy corn is part of the American snack food landscape, especially during the Halloween season. And although the actual flavor of candy corn is difficult to nail down, the ingredients are not. Brach's, one of the bigger manufacturers of candy corn, includes Red 3 on its ingredient list.

No part of Brach's candy corn is actually red in color. However, just like paints, artificial food dyes can be combined to create new colors. The presence of two yellow dyes — Yellow 6 and Yellow 5 — in the ingredient list suggests that at least one of them is used for the yellow part of the candy corn, and the other (if not both) is combined with Red 3 to make the orange-colored middle of the divisive candy.  

Good Humor strawberry shortcake ice cream bars

Good Humor products can be found on ice cream trucks and in frozen dairy aisles across America. One of its most recognizable products, the strawberry shortcake ice cream bar, is yet another vehicle for red dye No. 3.

A mass-market frozen bar version of the classic American dessert, Good Humor's strawberry shortcake dessert likely contains Red 3 in the bright red strawberry-flavored filling at its center. According to the ingredient list, the red pieces of cake crunch coating the outside of the bar instead contain Red 40 lake, a Red 3 alternative. Red 40 lake is also present elsewhere in the frozen treat.

Notably, unlike other strawberry-flavored snacks and desserts, Good Humor strawberry shortcake bars do contain less than 2% of actual strawberry puree, raising the possibility that real strawberries contribute to the color — however slightly — in addition to Red 3. With any luck, this will make it easy for Good Humor to phase out its use of Red 3 by the 2028 deadline introduced by the FDA.

Dubble Bubble bubblegum

As a category, bubble gum has both a distinct flavor and color. It typically tastes vaguely of strawberries, bananas, and citrus fruits, and usually has a distinct pink color, both coincidences that arose from bubblegum's experimental origins.

Today, the brand that arose from those experiments and established the standard characteristics of bubblegum, Dubble Bubble, uses Red 3 to get that signature shade of pink, alongside the more common Red 40 lake. Although red dye No. 3 was first approved for food use in 1907, over 20 years before the debut of Dubble Bubble, it is unknown whether the controversial dye is an original ingredient or if it was added after any one of several changes in ownership. Either way, we suspect the iconic bubble gum will be just as delicious and distinctive once Red 3 is removed from the ingredients list.