Health and nutrition news worth your attention, three times a week. Every item carries what actually happened, then what we make of it, kept clearly apart.Last updated July 29, 2026
FDA revokes two food colour additives
What happenedThe FDA issued a final order revoking Orange B, used on frankfurter and sausage casings, effective 8 September 2026. Objections are open until 24 August. Separately it proposed revoking Citrus Red No. 2, used on the skins of mature oranges, which was last certified for use in 2020. In both cases the stated reason is that industry abandoned the use. Neither action was taken on safety grounds.
Two dyes almost nobody was using got pulled, and it is being reported as a crackdown.
Nine dyes are still legal in your food right now. One of them is Red No. 3. The FDA already decided that one causes cancer in animals and revoked it back in January 2025. It is still allowed in food until January 2027.
You may also have seen a headline about six dyes being removed. That is not a ban either. It is a promise the food companies made, with a deadline of the end of 2027. Nothing forces them to keep it.
Three of the nine are not allowed in the EU or UK at all. The three you will actually meet on a label, Red 40, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6, are legal there too, but have to carry a printed warning that they may affect attention in children. Same dye, same food, and only one side of the Atlantic has to tell you.