Healthy Food Info - "Foot Dragging Administration"? or FDA

As you read in one of my previous posts, many of the artificial dyes used in our foods today were supposed to be investigated by the FDA for safety. This process failed as you will see in the following info quoted from the Feingold Association at http://www.feingold.org/.

"Year after year, the FDA granted additional temporary extensions to the provisionally listed dyes, and by 1985 members of Congress were exasperated. The Committee on Governmental Operations issued a report highly critical of the FDA and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services. The report cites unethical governmental practices and excessive influences of the industry lobbies, particularly the Cosmetic, Toiletries and Fragrances Association and the Certified Color Manufacturers Association.

In January of 1985 the Public Citizen Health Research Group filed suit against FDA for their failure to ban ten dyes, including Red 3, which had been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. The Delaney Clause of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act states that any food additive known to cause cancer in humans and animals may not be deliberately added to foods. In October of 1987 Public Citizen won their case in the U.S. Court of Appeals. The judge's decision affirmed that FDA was in violation of the law by permitting the continued use of Red 3.

Many years later, bright red maraschino cherries and countless other food products still contain the illegal dye.

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