Bill Ackman blasts FDA for taking long to ban Red No. 3

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman criticized the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week, saying the agency took too long to ban Red No. 3 from the U.S. food supply. 

“For how many years did how many children and adults get exposed to this dangerous toxin and the @US_FDA did nothing?” Ackman posted on X Thursday.

He speculated that the incoming Trump administration moved the needle, telling his followers that the FDA “finally decides to do its job” days before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.  

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Ackman also argued that Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, “are going to have to clean house at the FDA.”

“We also need to understand how the food industry pressured the FDA to continue to allow them to poison the American people,” Ackman continued. 

However, the federal agency has stated that any “claims that the use of FD&C Red No. 3 in food and in ingested drugs puts people at risk are not supported by the available scientific information.” 

Still, the FDA issued an order on Wednesday to revoke the authorization for the use of Red No. 3 – also known as Erythrosine and gives off a bright, cherry-red color – in food and ingested drugs. 

The decision follows the review of a petition that argues, under a rule called the Delaney Clause, the FDA should ban this color additive in foods and drugs on a federal level because it has been shown to cause cancer in animals.

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The dye has been primarily used in a wide range of food products, such as candy, cakes and cupcakes, cookies, frozen desserts, frostings and icings, as well as certain ingested drugs. However, for over three decades, it has been banned in cosmetics and topical drugs after data demonstrated that it is associated with animal carcinogenicity.

The FDA said that laboratory male rats in two different studies developed cancer after being “exposed to high levels of FD&C Red No. 3 due to a rat specific hormonal mechanism.” 

Federal officials said that the way that Red No. 3 causes cancer in male rats does not occur in humans and that relevant exposure levels to the artifical dye for humans are typically much lower than those that cause the effects shown in male rats. 

“Studies in other animals and in humans did not show these effects; claims that the use of FD&C Red No. 3 in food and in ingested drugs puts people at risk are not supported by the available scientific information,” the FDA continued. 

Moving forward, any manufacturer who uses the dye in food and ingested drugs will have until Jan. 15, 2027 or Jan. 18, 2028, respectively, to reformulate their products. 

This means consumers could still see it as an ingredient in a food or drug product on the market past the aforementioned dates if the product was manufactured before the effective date, according to the FDA.