Health officials banned the artificial food color known as Red 3 from the U.S. food supply in January, citing a federal statute and cancer risks in lab rats.

U.S. health officials have banned Red Dye No. 3 from American foods, decades after the synthetic coloring was banned in Europe. As VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports, studies have linked the bright red color additive to cancer in male laboratory rats.

The FDA has officially banned Red Dye number 3 from the nation's food supply, a move that comes nearly 35 years after it was prohibited in cosmetics, due to its potential link to cancer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the dye known as Red 3 from the nation’s food supply in January, setting deadlines for stripping the brightly hued additive from candies and cough syrup, baked goods,