Bill Ackman blasts FDA for taking long to ban Red No. 3
Fox News Senior Medical Analyst Dr. Mark Siegel weighs in on the FDA weighing a crackdown on food dyes, big food companies being sued for marketing “addictive” foods to children, and Eli Lilly using obesity drugs to treat addiction.
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 from the U.S. food supply.
“How many years have children and adults been exposed to this dangerous poison and the @US_FDA has done nothing?” Ackman posted on Thursday.
He suggested the incoming Trump administration had moved the needle by telling followers the FDA was “finally deciding to do its job” days before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
Ackman also claimed 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 pressures the FDA to continue to allow them to poison the American people,” Ackman continued.
However, the federal agency stated that any “claim that FD&C Red No. 3 the use of food and drugs put humans at risk are not supported by available scientific information.
Still, the FDA issued an order on Wednesday revoking approval for the use of Red No. 3, also known as erythrosine, which imparts a bright, cherry-red color in food and medicine.
The decision follows a review of a petition that argued that under a rule called the Delaney provision, the FDA should ban this color additive in foods and drugs at the federal level because it has shown that it cause cancer in animals.
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The dye has been used primarily in a wide variety of foods, such as candies, cakes and muffins, cookies, frozen desserts, frosting, and frosting, as well as some medications.However, it has been banned from cosmetics and topical medications for over three decades since data have shown that it is assocd animal carcinogenesis.
The FDA says male lab rats in two separate studies developed cancer after being “exposed to high levels of FD&C Red #3 due to a rat-specific hormonal mechanism.”
Federal officials said that the way Red No. 3 causes cancer in male rats does not occur in humans, and that the relevant levels of exposure to artificial dyes for humans are usually much lower than those shown in male rats.
“Other animal and human studies have not shown these effects. Claims that FD&C Red No. 3 that the use of 3 in food and in oral medications puts humans at risk are not supported by available scientific information,” the FDA continued.
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Moving forward, any manufacturer using the dye in food and infused drugs will have until January 15, 2027 or January 18, 2028, respectively, to reformulate their products.
This means that consumers may still see it as an ingredient in a food or drug product that is on the market after the aforementioned dates if the product was manufactured before the effective date, according to the FDA.
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