Bill Ackman criticizes the FDA for taking too long to ban Red No. 3

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

“For how many years have children and adults been exposed to this dangerous poison and the FDA has done nothing?” Ackman posted on X Thursday.

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

FDA Bans Artificial Red Dye: What This Means for Consumers

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

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

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

However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an order Wednesday revoking the license for use of Red No. 3 — also known as erythrosine, which gives a bright cherry red color — in ingested foods and medications.

The decision comes after a petition review that says, under a rule called the Delaney Proviso, the FDA must ban this coloring additive in foods and drugs at the federal level because it has been shown to… Causes cancer in animals.

Billionaire Bill Ackman publicly supports Trump after assassination attempt

The tincture has been used primarily in a wide range of food products, such as candy, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, frozen desserts, frostings, and decorations, as well as some ingested medications. However, for more than three decades, it was banned in cosmetics and topical medications after data showed its association With animal carcinogenicity.

Male laboratory rats in two different studies developed cancer after “exposure to high levels of FD&C Red No. 3 due to a rat-specific hormonal mechanism,” the FDA said.

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

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

Get FOX Business on the go by clicking here

Going forward, any manufacturer using the dye in food and ingested drugs will have until January 15, 2027, or January 18, 2028, respectively, to reformulate its products.

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