Illinois moves to ban Red No. 3, other harmful food additives

Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Illinois is the latest state to move towards banning several controversial food chemical additives, following a move by California in October.

The Illinois Food Safety Act would ban brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, proylparaben, red dye no. 3 and titanium dioxide, an additive used and approved for to brighten and boost colors, which is used in sunscreen and candy products like Skittles.

Groups like the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a food and health watchdog organization have spent decades pushing for the ban on commonly used synthetic food dyes, such as Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6, and Red No. 40 and Red No. 3 for years, first in California and now to the FDA.

Some of these additives, they found in 2021, pose risks including hyperactivity and other behavior problems in children and while others like Red No. 3 and Yellow No. 5, pose a risk of cancer and cause allergic reactions such as hives or itching in some children, respectively.

A similar law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in California banned the additives.

Democratic Illinois State Senator Willie Preston told ABC7 the issue of food safety was especially important for the state's children.

"We in the state of Illinois will not allow these food additives that are putting the risk of our children at state, to remain in the food supply. We are all please the state of California took some action. We're going to take similar action and we are going to take it a step further," he said.

"The additives addressed in this bill are already banned in various other countries," Newsom said in a statement. "Signing this into law is a positive step forward on these four food additives until the United States Food and Drug Administration [FDA] reviews and establishes national updated safety levels for these additives."

In October of 2023, according to Consumer Reports, the CSPI recommended sent a petition to the FDA urging the agency to prohibit Red Dye No. 3 in food, dietary supplements, and ingested drugs.

More than 30 years ago the Food and Drug Administration banned Erythosine, also listed as "FD&C Red No. 3" because high doses of it had been found to cause cancer in animals.

According to the Enviornmental Working Group, there are more than 3,200 products currently available for purchase with Red No. 3 as a listed ingredient.

The European Union and California have already banned or restricted the majority of these chemicals.

The National Confectioner's Association has come out against the bill, saying it would "replace a uniform national food safety system with a patchwork of inconsistent state requirements created by legislative fiat that will increase food costs, undermine consumer confidence, and create confusion around food safety."

The group also opposed the California law when it was passed in 2023.