What is Red 40 and why hasn’t the FDA banned the dye? [Video]

The Food and Drug Administration has not formally reevaluated the safety of a food dye called Red 40 in over a decade, the agency’s top food official said this month when asked about renewed worries over its potential behavioral health effects.

The agency has launched a new effort to take a second look at some previously approved additives. But Jim Jones, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for human foods, warned their budget was too small and that it would take years to catch up to other countries.

“We are several decades behind Europeans and our Canadian counterparts, because they have legal mandates to reevaluate chemicals that have been authorized,” Jones told Sen. Tommy Tuberville at a hearing of the Senate’s health committee.

Tuberville also asked Jones about a different food dye called Red 3, which advocacy groups have petitionedagainst due to studies showing it causes cancer in animals. Jones suggested the agency could be weeks away from …