It’s good news the Food and Drug Administration has decided to ban Red Dye No. 3 from being used in food, as it announced today. But that’s just the start – many other toxic chemicals can still be added to food and food packaging, and the FDA should move swiftly to ban them.

The ban on Red 3 is years overdue. In 1990, the FDA banned it from cosmetics, citing its risk of causing cancer. At the time, it pledged to extend the ban to cover use in food, too. Since then, many other countries have banned most uses of Red 3, and California in 2023 enacted a law that prohibited the dye and three other chemicals from use in food.

Candidates for FDA bans

Other concerning substances remain in food sold throughout the U.S. Here’s a baker’s dozen of chemicals added to food and food packaging that the FDA should immediately ban:

PFAS

The toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS increase the risk of cancer and heart disease, but the FDA still allows some uses of PFAS in food manufacturing and cookware. The FDA first understood the risks posed by PFAS in food in the 1960s. The agency has yet to respond to a petition EWG and others filed in 2021 asking it to ban these uses.

In 2024, the agency said it was considering a ban on the use of the PFAS chemical fluorinated polyethylene but has so far declined to act.

PFAS does not only get into food through food packaging, but can also contaminate food through polluted water, soil, and animal feed. The FDA should set action levels for PFAS in food and require companies to test food for PFAS contamination.

BPA

As with PFAS, the harms of bisphenol A, better known as BPA, are also well documented, leading other nations to ban its use in food packaging. BPA can harm the immune and reproductive systems at levels far below those currently allowed by the FDA.

A petition to ban BPA filed by EWG and others has been pending before the FDA since 2022.

TCE and three other solvents 

The Environmental Protection Agency just banned all uses of trichloroethylene, or TCE, citing harms ranging from cancer to fetal heart defects. But the FDA continues to allow the use of TCE, benzene, methylene chloride and ethylene chloride in the production of decaffeinated coffee, spices and hops for beer.

The National Toxicology Program has found these chemicals to cause cancer in animals. Petitions filed by EWG and others asking the FDA to ban these solvents in food have been pending since January 2024.

BHA and BHT

In 1990, a doctor petitioned the FDA to ban butylated hydroxyanisole, or BHA, citing its link to cancer. Thirty-four years later, the agency is still considering whether to go ahead with a ban. The FDA has doubted the safety of BHA even longer, since 1978.

Since then, the case for a ban has grown stronger, including the National Toxicology Program’s 2021 conclusion that it’s “reasonably anticipated to be a carcinogen.” Despite the report, the FDA continues to consider BHA to be “generally recognized as safe.”

Like BHA, butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, has been linked to serious health harms, including harms to the hormone system, but the FDA keeps insisting both chemicals are safe.

Titanium dioxide

Food companies in the European Union were no longer allowed to use titanium dioxideonce scientists warned it could build up in the body and damage DNA. But the FDA keeps insisting it’s safe in food.

A petition filed by EWG and others asking the agency to ban the chemical has been pending since 2023.

Propylparaben and potassium bromate

California, China and the EU have all banned food uses of propylparaben, a preservative, and potassium bromate, a leavening agent. Propylparaben has been linked to harms to the reproductive and hormone systems, and potassium bromate has been linked to cancer.

While the FDA added both chemicals to a list for a fresh review, it has made no progress on that front.

Perchlorate

An anti-static agent used in food packaging, perchlorate blocks the thyroid from absorbing iodide. Children and the developing fetus are most vulnerable to harm from perchlorate, because their brains are still developing, and their bodies are sensitive to small changes in iodide levels. In 2022, a court upheld the FDA’s decision to reject a petition filed by EWG and others asking it to ban the chemical’s use. Since then, new data has shown the harms of perchlorate in food packaging.

Phthalates 

Public health advocates first asked the FDA to ban the use of phthalates in food packaging in 2016. They cited decades of scientific evidence linking phthalates to birth defects, infertility, preterm birth, damage to children’s brain development, and other serious health harms. The FDA failed to respond for six years and in the end rejected the coalition’s demand to reevaluate phthalate safety.

After years of inaction, in 2021 public health advocates sued the FDA, forcing the agency to respond. In 2022, the FDA denied the petition and upheld its decision in October. So these hormone-distrupting chemicals are still leaching into our food.

Action on additional chemicals

Now that the FDA has banned Red 3, the agency should move quickly to ban these chemicals and reconsider others linked to health harms, including concerning synthetic sweeteners such as aspartame.

The FDA should also immediately ban sodium benzoate in foods that also include vitamin C, citric acid or ascorbic acid – a combination that can create cancer-causing benzene. And the FDA should work with the Department of Agriculture to end the use of synthetic colors in school foods, as California has done.

For decades, the FDA has allowed chemical companies to decide whether most food chemicals are safe. EWG recently found nearly 99 percent of the new food chemicals developed since 2000 were reviewed for safety by industry scientists, not the FDA.

In the rare instances when the FDA reviews chemicals for safety before they enter the market, the agency often does not review old decisions – even in light of new research. It hasn’t reviewed the safety of potassium bromate and propylparaben in almost half a century.

The EPA must review some chemicals, such as pesticides, every 15 years. But the FDA doesn’t face a similar requirement. So most chemicals people consume every day – in a host of foods and beverages – have not been reviewed for safety for decades, if ever. The FDA has pledged to conduct more “post market” reviews of chemicals used in food and is collecting comments on this plan until January 21.

Some states aren’t waiting for the FDA to act. California enacted not only its 2023 law banning four chemicals from all foods sold in the state but also its 2024 law banning six toxic dyes from food served in the state’s public schools. Eleven other states also introduced bills to ban toxic chemicals in food in 2024.

What you can do

The FDA is accepting public feedback about its post-market food chemical review process. You can make your voice heard about the importance of a process that will get harmful chemicals like BHA out of food.

In the meantime, if you want to lower your intake of harmful food ingredients, you can:

• Consult EWG’s Food Scores database to find products that don’t use toxic food chemicals such as those the state bills target. On the go, check EWG’s Healthy Living app for products free from problematic substances.
• When possible and affordable, limit your intake of ultra-processed foods. Many contain concerning ingredients.
• Choose packaged foods that are certified organic, whenever possible. These products must meet strong standards that protect consumers from exposure to potentially harmful additives.