Favorite Candies Sold in New Jersey May Cause Cancer

Candy, we all love sweet, popular treats. It doesn't matter how old you are. I'm sure some of my favorites are on the list.

Sweet tooth, I have one. We all have our favorite candy or sweet treat that we reach for.

There are certain candies that are more unhealthy than the rest of the sweets we put in our belly.

Get our free mobile app

There is an ingredient in different candies that is considered the most unsafe and there are people who are trying to eliminate it from all foods permanently.

Thanks to the The Center for Science in the Public Interest is petitioning the Food and Drug Administration is trying to eliminate a dangerous artificial color ingredient from all foods.

What's the artificial color ingredient that experts are trying to eliminate from foods?

It's the Red Dye 3. Usually it's labeled on foods and candies. It was banned from cosmetics well over 30 years ago. Why hasn't been removed from foods?

This artificial color ingredient has caused cancer in animals and various amounts of Red Dye 3 have caused hyperactivity, and restlessness in children. I actually have a family member that needs to look at all labels and he can not have anything with Red Dye 3 on it. Do you know how hard it is to find certain foods without that Red Dye 3?

The Environmental Working Group research shows that over 2,900 products contain this artificial color ingredient.  The food products that contain Red Dye 3 include Strawberry Flavors of Pediasure and Ensure along with Wise Onion Rings and Dole Cherry Mixed Fruit.

What are some candies with Red Dye 3 that you should watch out for?

**Fruit by the foot - Those deep colors of Red and Purple are thanks to the addition of Red Dye 3. That artificial color ingredient can be found in many of their candies.

**Ring Pops (However, Raspberry and Watermelon do not have the Red Dye 3 on the label)

**Pez Candy (Try to stay away from Strawberry, Raspberry, Orange, and Grape)

**Double Bubble Gum - Bubble Gum that is based on the "Original" Flavor from almost 100 years ago would contain this artificial color ingredient.

**Candy Corn - Halloween Holiday and Fall seasonal favorite, but Brach's and some other producers of Candy Corn use variations of Red Dye in their holiday candy.

**Trolli Sour Candy - Most of these Sour Candies come in assorted flavor bags, so it is hard to only buy the ones without the controversial artificial color ingredient. Unless you can find a bag of Trolli Sour Candy that explicitly says it does not have Red Dyes in there, best bet is to steer clear if you want to avoid that ingredient.

**Peeps (my favorite) - For the people who enjoy these Easter Holiday and Spring Seasonal Candies should know specific types of Peeps contain Red Dyes. Those Pink and Purple Peeps have the artificial color ingredient along with certain others that are not the original Yellow ones.

**Certain types of Jelly Beans - Some Jelly Beans are name brands and from different stores, just check the ones that contain Red Dye. Most of the time Jelly Beans come in assorted packs so it would be tedious to pick out the ones that contain Red Dye.

Most importantly, please read your labels. I think we tend to do that more than we ever have.