Fan-favorite Peeps may be getting a facelift.
Just Born Quality Confections, the manufacturer of the vibrant marshmallows, announced that Peeps will no longer contain the dye Red No. 3 after Easter 2024.
The synthetic color is used to create the eye-catching hues that are a hallmark of the Peeps brand every spring, as well as thousands of common grocery items.
This upcoming spring, the only Peeps offerings containing the artificial coloring, which has been banned in the state of California, are the pink and lavender candies.
The brand — which is joining the ranks of other major food brands to voluntarily stop using Red No. 3 — also announced that Hot Tamales would no longer contain the dye.
In a statement to Consumer Reports, Just Born assured customers that their products “comply with FDA guidelines and use only FD&C certified color.”
The nonprofit watchdog organization previously raised concerns over the company’s use of Red No. 3, claiming that nine different Just Born products had alarming carcinogenic properties.
Consumer Reports also filed a petition in April for the FDA to review the usage of the potentially cancer-causing dye in foods.
“We’ve known for years that Red Dye 3 and the other toxic chemicals banned under California’s landmark pose serious risks to our health,” Brian Ronholm, Consumer Reports’ director of food policy, said in a statement, calling the widespread use of the dye in food marketed for children “concerning.”
“We applaud Just Born for removing Red Dye #3 from PEEPS before the California law goes into effect in 2027 and urge other companies to do the same,” he added.
The Peeps ingredient overhaul coincides with a recent California ban on the chemical coloring, signed into law by the state’s governor just this week.
The bill, AB 418, barred the sale of foods containing four ingredients — brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben and red dye No. 3 — that are suspected to be carcinogenic.
While the once-commonplace red dye was barred from cosmetic products more than three decades ago, this is one of the first pieces of legislation that would remove it from food.
The ban is a “huge step in our effort to protect children and families in California from dangerous and toxic chemicals in our food supply,” the legislation’s author Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, told the Los Angeles Times.
Some food additives, like potassium bromate and brominated vegetable oil, are banned in Europe but are used in the US in commonly purchased food products.
A similar bill has been introduced in New York, which would ban the same four ingredients as well as titanium dioxide, an additive once at the center of a since-dismissed lawsuit against Mars Inc.’s Skittles.
However, industry trade groups like the National Confectioners Association have denounced California’s novel bill — which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2027 — and claim it will confuse customers and increase the cost of food.
“This is a slippery slope that the FDA could prevent by engaging on this important topic,” a spokesperson for the NCA said in a statement. “We should be relying on the scientific rigor of the FDA in terms of evaluating the safety of food ingredients and additives.”
The FDA previously told The Post that many food additives — which must be “supported by science” and meet the agency’s safety standards — “serve a useful purpose,” such as maintaining freshness, improving nutritional value or enhancing the taste or texture.
