Just last week, Shanie Chiu’s husband came into her Staten Island front door carrying a box of Froot Loops he had just bought at the grocery store.
“As soon as I saw it, I told them to throw it away. I told them never to buy it again,” Chiu, a mother of two daughters aged 5 and 7, told the Post. “The girls love it, but I don’t like the artificial colors, so I told them I can only buy Cheerios or Kicks from now on.”
For Qiu, the news that the FDA has banned Red No. 3 from food and ingested drugs feels like a step in the right direction.
“My youngest daughter loves strawberry-flavored candy,” she said. “When I told her that Welch’s Fruit Snacks had artificial colors in them, she was sad about it, but she doesn’t buy them anymore.”
While there is optimism among parents in the city about the ban on cherry red dye, there is also disappointment that the ban will not take effect until 2027 for food and 2028 for oral drugs.
“I’m frustrated that it’s taking so long, but I’m also hopeful,” said Rezanna Beharry, a mother of three sons ages 4, 9 and 12, who lives in Ozone Park, Queens. Ta. “At least this is an important topic now, and people are becoming more aware of how many artificial ingredients are in the food we feed our children.”
This is especially true considering how long the list of popular foods contains petroleum-based synthetic food colors. The list also includes Dole diced fruit cups, Dubble Bubble Original Twisted Bubble Gum, and even MorningStar Farms Veggie Bacon Strips.
Melanie Lauzier, a Staten Island resident and mother of 10-year-old son Braden, was shocked to learn the dye was in the strawberry-flavored Pediasure shake she’s been giving her son since he was a child. .
“I’ve been using it for years as a supplement when he’s sick or doesn’t have an appetite,” she said. “I’m upset and very surprised that this was on the list.”
However, Abbott Nutrition, which owns Pediasure, plans to remove artificial colors from its products in 2024, Fox News reported.
Walk down the aisle and read the labels
The fact that her parents have to be “label detectives” at the grocery store frustrates Roger.
“It’s upsetting to think that if a product has been on the shelves for years, it’s not safe for children,” she says. “Food coloring is literally everywhere.”
Going to the supermarket, where brightly colored sweets tempt children, makes the errand even more stressful, Chiu said.
“The kids say, ‘Mom, I want to eat this,’ and ‘I want to eat that, too,'” she says. “I have to tell them they can’t get anything with those colors in it.”
Beharie found it helpful to download Yuka, an app that allows her to scan a product’s barcode and see its ingredient breakdown as she walks down the aisle.
“That tells you why the product is risk-free,” she said. “I also try to read the labels on all the food I buy. If I can’t pronounce the name of an ingredient, I don’t buy it.”
When China Haywood goes grocery shopping with her 4-year-old daughter, Eden, she looks for fresh produce, organic brands, and products without high fructose corn syrup or artificial colors.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there was red dye in pre-made fruit cups,” said Haywood, who lives in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. “I don’t like buying fruit in a cup, and I don’t like buying fruit in a bag where you can’t see what’s inside. I want to see the food I’m feeding my daughter.”
Say goodbye to brightly colored frosting
While the food kids eat at home is an issue, parents acknowledge that it’s at bake sales and birthday parties that are the real problem when it comes to accessing dye-laden desserts. I am.
“When kids see a plate full of cupcakes with colorful icing at a birthday party, they already know what to do,” Beharie says. “If they forget, I repeat it and say, ‘Hey, let’s take off the frosting.'”
The goal is to help them stay as healthy as possible, she said.
“We know kids are kids, and we don’t want them to feel like they can’t eat certain foods,” she says. “We also know that children have a hard time controlling themselves when they’re around colorful snacks and sweets.”
Roger, for his part, is already struggling with the temptation of Valentine’s Day’s bright reds and pinks, and is trying to figure out how to remove the dye from his favorite sprinkle-topped cake pops.
Colorful cupcakes may be a thing of the past for this family.
“When I told Braden that his colorful Valentine cupcakes would be on hold until the dyes were reformulated, he was definitely disappointed,” she said. “He was disappointed.”
