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Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed legislation on March 21 that bans seven color additives in foods served at public schools.

State Sen. Emily Jordan, R-Isle of Wight, sponsored Senate Bill 1289, which passed both legislative chambers unanimously in February. The bill is identical to House Bill 1910, which was sponsored by Del. Hillary Pugh Kent, R-Richmond County, which also passed both chambers unanimously.

On Jan. 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration revoked authorization for the use of FD&C Red No. 3, also known as erythrosine or Red 3, citing the Delaney Clause – a 1958-enacted clause of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic, or FD&C, Act named for former U.S. Rep. James Delaney, D-New York, banning any additive found to cause cancer in humans or animals at any dose.

The revocation, according to the FDA, was in response to a 2022 petition that requested a Delaney Clause review, which cited two studies from 1987 showing Red 3 – found primarily in candies, cakes, cupcakes and some brands of strawberry milk – to cause cancer in male laboratory rats when the rats were exposed to high levels of the additive due to a rat-specific hormonal mechanism.

Per the new FDA rule, manufacturers who use Red 3 in food will have until Jan. 15, 2027, to reformulate their products.

Jordan’s and Kent’s bills go beyond the FDA rule in requiring that six additional additives be banned from food served in schools by July 1, 2027. These include FD&C Blue No. 1 and No. 2, Green No. 3, Red. No. 40, and Yellow No. 5 and No. 6.

Specifically, the legislation directs the Virginia Board of Education to amend its nutritional guidelines.

California, which in 2023 became the first state to ban Red 3, passed a law in 2024 similar to Jordan’s bill that banned the six additional additives after a 2021 state report linked the consumption of synthetic food dies to a 20-year rise in children and teenagers diagnosed with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD.

Virginia will be the second, Jordan said in a March 22 Facebook statement.

“I certainly want to commend this board and the schools for making a commitment far ahead of many other districts to be able to handle that by doing so much production in house and making very positive choices, so I don’t think that will have really any impact to Isle of Wight County,” Jordan told county supervisors on March 20.

Last year, Isle of Wight County Schools brought its food services back in house after five years of outsourcing. On March 21, representatives from IWCS including Deputy Superintendent Christopher Coleman, Director of Child Nutrition Ellen Couch, Future Farmers of America students Jordan Baldwin, Emma Barnes and Clay Causey, agriculture teacher Jason Brittle and Daniel Judkins, farm manager at the IWCS agricultural land lab at Windsor Elementary, accompanied Jordan to witness Youngkin’s signing both bills. The land lab is a student-run working farm where the division’s agriculture career and technical education program is taught.

“Our focus remains on growing healthy foods for our community, and today’s events underscore the importance of providing nutritious, dye-free meals to students across Virginia,” said IWCS spokeswoman Lynn Briggs.

Red 3 was first listed in the FDA’s color additive regulations in 1969, though the coloring had already been in use in foods by that time for more than 50 years. The U.S. Department of Agriculture first approved the additive, which is derived from petroleum, in 1907, according to the FDA’s website. The FDA previously banned Red 3 in cosmetics in 1990. 

Blue No. 1, which the FDA approved as a food dye in 1993, is most commonly found in cereals, juice and soft drinks, popsicles and frosting, according to a 2021 study archived in the National Library of Medicine. Though industry-sponsored studies didn’t find evidence of a link to cancer, the dye was found to be related to skin irritation and difficulty breathing, the 2021 study states.

Blue No. 2, which the FDA approved in 1983, is most commonly found in baked goods, cereals, snack foods and ice cream and “cannot be considered safe for human consumption” based on a “statistically significant increase” in brain and breast tumors observed in rats, the 2021 study states. 

According to a 2023 study archived in the National Library of Medicine, Red No. 40 and Yellows No. 5 and No. 6 account for 90% of all dyes used in the United States, and over 40% of foods marketed to children in the U.S. contain one or more of these dyes, which are used primarily in beverages, frozen treats, gelatin products, candies and icings, among other foods. The 2023 study linked Red No. 40, combined with a high-fat diet, to inflammation of the colon in mice, noting use of synthetic food colorings over the past 40 years has coincided with a rise in colorectal cancer in people under age 50.

Yellow No. 5, according to a 2007 study, is a nitrous derivative also known as tartrazine and is “known to cause” allergic reactions and asthma based on studies in rats. It received FDA authorization in 1969. Red No. 40 and Yellow No. 5 and No. 6, the latter of which received FDA approval in 1986, have been “found to be contaminated with benzidine or other carcinogens” according to a 2012 study. Yellow 5 and 6 are found in popular candies such as M&Ms, Jelly Beans and some brands of shelf-stable popcorn, among other foods.