BATON ROUGE — The FDA recently announced a ban on red dye No. 3, which has been used for years in all kinds of food including candy, cookies and cereal.

It is even added to some medications. There are several reasons for the decision to ban it.

"Red dye number three is just something that the food manufacturers have used. It's a chemical, it's a petroleum-based chemical, which now, because it's being banned, has actually had a positive correlation to cause cancer in rats. So, there are no human studies that have shown this, but there is strong evidence that it does have cancer-causing properties based on the petroleum that it's made out of,” dietitian Beth Czerwony said.

Red dye No. 3 has no nutritional value and does not affect flavor or texture. It was used to make the color of a certain food look more vibrant and appetizing for the consumer.

Food manufacturers in the United States now have until 2027 to reformulate their products, so shoppers need to be cautious in the meantime.

Experts say you should have already been skipping any foods with the dye in it and opting for healthier whole foods instead.

"So, a lot of the, you know, the foods that are going to have this red dye are already processed. They're going to be in cereals and snack chips and, you know, sugar-laden beverages and those types of things. So, ultimately, those are things that we would want you to avoid or limit in your diets anyway,” Czerwony said.

Analysts say it is too early to tell how this ruling will be enforced down the road or if manufacturers may try to find another dye to use instead.