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Foods with Red 40 and other dyes, by category
Choose a category and a dye. The list comes from ingredient labels that manufacturers file with USDA, newest first, each with the month it was filed.
Search labeled products by category and dye
Candy and chocolate: products whose label lists Red 40
14,269 of 33,904
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USDA FoodData Central, Branded Foods, release of 2026-10-29. The label date is when the record was submitted: recipes change, so check the package in your hand.
Red 40 is the dye most often named in US ingredient lists. Of the 440,229 branded products counted in USDA FoodData Central, one per barcode, 37,647 list it, 8.6% of the whole data set. The share varies a great deal by category: it is on 42% of candy labels, 30% of frosting and sprinkle labels and 26% of drink mixes, but under 2% of yogurt, milk and cheese. The search above lists the products themselves, as described in the data, with their brand and the month the label was submitted. That date matters: most of the labels in the data were filed between 2021 and 2023, and many manufacturers have announced new recipes since. A product listed here is a product whose label said it contained Red 40 at that date. Read on October 29, 2026.
How common is this ingredient in a food category?
Breakfast cereal whose label lists Red 40
11%
| Products listing it | 1,059 |
| Products in the category | 9,803 |
USDA FoodData Central, Branded Foods; labels were submitted over several years and recipes change.
Laws and FDA orders read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
Red 40 in every category
The table ranks the 17 categories of this site by the share of their labels that name Red 40. Each name opens the category page, where the same table covers every tracked dye and additive.
| Category | Products listing Red 40 | Products | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Candy and chocolate | 14,269 | 33,904 | 42.1% |
| Gelatin and pudding | 689 | 2,033 | 33.9% |
| Chewing gum and mints | 547 | 1,669 | 32.8% |
| Frosting, sprinkles and syrups | 1,881 | 6,350 | 29.6% |
| Drink mixes and water enhancers | 1,303 | 4,994 | 26.1% |
| Cakes, pastries and toaster pastries | 3,454 | 14,007 | 24.7% |
| Soda | 1,687 | 7,922 | 21.3% |
| Cookies | 2,478 | 14,740 | 16.8% |
| Ice cream and frozen treats | 2,050 | 15,154 | 13.5% |
| Breakfast cereal | 1,059 | 9,803 | 10.8% |
| Cake and baking mixes | 772 | 7,507 | 10.3% |
| Sports and energy drinks | 175 | 2,655 | 6.6% |
| Chips, crackers and snacks | 3,457 | 55,086 | 6.3% |
| Fruit drinks, teas and flavored waters | 1,182 | 22,942 | 5.2% |
| Snack and granola bars | 189 | 8,150 | 2.3% |
| Yogurt, milk and cheese | 509 | 30,279 | 1.7% |
| Sauces, dressings and pickles | 595 | 42,515 | 1.4% |
How the data was built
FoodData Central publishes its Branded Foods data set as a public-domain download. We read the release of October 29, 2026: the product records and the descriptions, with their ingredient lists. When the same barcode appears several times, the most recent record is kept, and records marked as discontinued are dropped, which leaves 440,229 products. Each ingredient list is read by the same matcher as the ingredient checker. The USDA category of each product is then grouped into the 17 categories used here; products outside them, such as bread, meat or frozen meals, count in the totals but have no page.
Why the label date matters
The data set mixes records of very different ages: 97% of the products kept carry a label date before 2024. A count of Red 40 is therefore a picture of labels over several years, not of today's shelves. For the same reason, a falling count in a future release would mean that newer labels name it less often, which is the measure that matters for the FDA phase-out request.
How common is this ingredient in a food category?
Breakfast cereal whose label lists Red 40
11%
| Products listing it | 1,059 |
| Products in the category | 9,803 |
USDA FoodData Central, Branded Foods; labels were submitted over several years and recipes change.
Not a list of products to avoid
Red 40 is allowed by the FDA in all the products listed. This page reports what labels say; it makes no claim about any product's safety or quality, and the brands are shown only because they are part of the public record. Where a state rule applies, as in school food in several states, the Red 40 page gives the dates.