Food dye bans by state: Red 40, Red 3 and the FDA rules

Two levels of rules

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act makes the FDA the gatekeeper for color additives. A color may be used in food only if it is listed in the regulations for that use, and a synthetic dye must also be certified batch by batch. When the FDA revokes a listing, the color becomes unlawful in food in every state from the date the order sets. That is what happened to brominated vegetable oil, to Orange B, and, from January 15, 2027, to Red 3.

States cannot authorize what the FDA forbids, but they can restrict what it allows. Their laws take three forms: a ban on making or selling food that contains a substance in the state, a rule for what public schools serve and sell, and a requirement to print or link information on the package. Each form has a different reach, and a single state can use more than one. The grid below shows, for each state and the District of Columbia, which kinds it has enacted; states with a page of their own open it.

What the FDA has ordered and what it has asked

The FDA's decisions on dyes since 2024 differ in force. The orders are binding: BVO lost its only authorization on August 2, 2024, with a compliance date a year later; Orange B, once allowed on sausage casings, was revoked as abandoned from September 8, 2026; and Red 3 leaves food on January 15, 2027 and ingested drugs on January 18, 2028, under an order that was stayed in 2025 and confirmed in August 2026. The proposal to revoke Citrus Red 2, used on orange peels, was still awaiting a final decision on November 1, 2026.

The request is not binding. On April 22, 2025, the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services announced that they would work with industry to eliminate the six remaining petroleum-based dyes from the food supply, and the FDA now tracks company pledges against a target of the end of 2027. The six stay listed: a product containing Red 40 after 2027 would break no federal rule unless an order revokes the listing first. The FDA phase-out page sets out each step with its Federal Register reference.

Bans on all food sold in a state

Two states have gone this far. California's Food Safety Act, signed in October 2023, bans brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben and Red 3 in food made, sold or distributed in the state from January 1, 2027, with civil penalties of up to $5,000 for a first violation and $10,000 for each later one. Its effect on Red 3 and BVO now overlaps with federal orders, but its rules on potassium bromate and propylparaben go beyond anything the FDA has done.

West Virginia's HB 2354, signed in March 2025, would make a food adulterated if it contains any of nine substances, the seven synthetic dyes plus BHA and propylparaben, when sold in the state from January 1, 2028. On December 23, 2025, a federal court enjoined the state health department from enforcing it, finding its key provision likely unconstitutionally vague; the state appealed. The West Virginia page follows the case. No ban on Red 40 in food sold in stores is in force anywhere in the country.

School food rules

Most state action concerns schools: 10 states, California, West Virginia, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Louisiana, Arizona, Delaware, Alaska and Iowa, limit dyes or additives in what schools serve or sell. The lists range from Red 40 alone in Delaware to eleven substances in Arizona, where titanium dioxide and BVO are named alongside the dyes. The scope varies too. Alaska's rule covers the breakfast and lunch a public school serves; Arizona's, Utah's, Virginia's and Iowa's reach food sold anywhere on campus during the school day; Texas limits free and reduced-price meals. Start dates run from August 2025 in West Virginia to the 2028-2029 school year in Louisiana.

None of these laws reaches the lunchbox: several say expressly that parents may send their own food. They change what districts buy. The school rules page compares them side by side.

Label rules

Texas and Louisiana chose information over prohibition. Texas SB 25 requires a printed warning on food that contains any of 44 listed ingredients, but only on labels developed or copyrighted from January 1, 2027; a federal court has barred enforcement against four trade associations and their members. Louisiana's SB 14 requires a QR code leading to a disclosure about listed ingredients from December 31, 2028. Neither law stops a product from being sold. The Texas label page includes a tool that tests a label's date.

The 14 substances tracked here

The site follows every dye or additive that a federal order or at least one enacted state law names: the seven synthetic dyes for general use, the two narrow-use dyes Citrus Red 2 and Orange B, and five other additives that state laws group with them, BVO, potassium bromate, propylparaben, titanium dioxide and BHA. Each has a page with its federal rule, its names on labels, the state laws that cover it and its presence in labeled products. The list of certified dyes explains how US law separates synthetic dyes from colors exempt from certification, and the natural colors page lists the replacements the FDA has approved since 2025.

What labels show

US labeling rules make ingredient lists a reliable guide for dyes: a certified color must be named, not hidden behind "artificial color". Of the 440,229 branded products in USDA FoodData Central, counted one per barcode, 37,647 list Red 40, the most common dye by far, with candy, gum, gelatin desserts and frosting at the top. Most of those labels were filed between 2021 and 2023, before many companies announced new recipes, so the counts describe labels over several years, not today's shelves. The product search lists products by category with each label's date, and the ingredient checker reads any list you paste.

What the site does not do

It reports what laws, court orders and FDA decisions say, each with its source and the date we read it. It does not say whether any dye, additive or food is good or bad for anyone: where the FDA, the European Food Safety Authority or California's OEHHA have published a position, the pages quote it and name the author. It is not legal advice for a business either; a manufacturer facing a compliance date should read the text itself, which every page links to. When we could not read a state's law at its official source, we write "not confirmed" instead of repeating a secondary report: on November 1, 2026 that was the case for bills reported in Tennessee, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Michigan.

Every page of the site