Is Red 40 Bad for You?
Red 40 is legal in US food, and every batch has to be certified. Under federal rules, all batches of FD&C Red No. 40 and its lakes must be certified by the FDA, and a certified color additive may be declared on food labels by its name without the FD&C prefix or the term No., so it may appear on ingredient lists simply as Red 40.
Federal policy is moving away from it. In April 2025 the FDA said it was working with industry to eliminate six remaining synthetic dyes, FD&C Green No. 3, Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6, Blue No. 1 and Blue No. 2, from the food supply by the end of next year.
West Virginia has gone further. Its food adulteration law names FD&C Red No. 40 among added substances it calls poisonous or injurious to health, with the 2025 amendments effective January 1, 2028. On December 23, 2025 a federal court granted a preliminary injunction barring the state health department from enforcing that law, H.B. 2354, finding it fails to give adequate notice of what conduct is prohibited, and the appeal was tentatively calendared for argument in the Fourth Circuit during its December 8 to 11, 2026 session.
Sources checked September 15, 2026. Every point below links the page it came from.
The sources behind this answer
- Regulatory filingUnder 21 CFR 74.340, all batches of FD&C Red No. 40 and its lakes must be certified in accordance with the FDA’s color certification regulations. eCFR, 21 CFR 74.340 ↗
- Regulatory filingUnder 21 CFR 101.22, a certified color additive must be declared on food labels by its listed name, though the FD&C prefix and the term No. do not have to be included. eCFR, 21 CFR 101.22 ↗
- Government sourceIn April 2025 the FDA said it was working with industry to eliminate six remaining synthetic dyes, including FD&C Red No. 40, from the food supply by the end of next year. US FDA ↗
- Regulatory filingWest Virginia Code 16-7-2 names FD&C Red No. 40 among added substances or ingredients which are poisonous or injurious to health, with the 2025 amendments to that section effective January 1, 2028. West Virginia Legislature ↗
- Legal caseOn December 23, 2025 a federal court in West Virginia granted a preliminary injunction barring the state Department of Health from enforcing H.B. 2354, finding it fails to give adequate notice of what conduct is prohibited. US District Court, Southern District of West Virginia, via CourtListener ↗
- Legal caseThe Fourth Circuit appeal, International Association of Color Manufacturers v. Arvin Singh, was tentatively calendared for oral argument during the December 8 to 11, 2026 argument session. US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit docket, via CourtListener ↗
Sources checked September 15, 2026. A brand statement is the company’s own claim, which we report but have not verified. Our grades are model-based estimates, not lab tests.