On Wednesday, the FDA announced the plan to ban "red number 3," a color additive made from petroleum that gives food and drinks a bright red color.

All food manufacturers must reformulate foods by January 2027, giving them time to get the red out.

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What's so harmful about it?

"The concern with red dye comes from really out of the animal studies that showed that it can cause thyroid tumors and rats is what it showed, but we see that with a lot of different food dies," explains pediatric dietician from Veggies and Virtue, Ashley Amith. "There are also neurobehavioral issues that are concern that it can impact kids' behavior and neurological function."

Due to cancer concerns, several states already banned red dye 3. It has already been banned in cosmetics since 1990.

"Back when it was approved by the FDA for food, there wasn't the research that was available when they banned it for cosmetics," said Dr. Adan Alvarez with Luxe Primary Care Practice. "They were supposed to go back and revisit the issue for, you know, the food industry but they just never did."

The recent decision is a victory for food safety advocacy groups who've been petitioning the FDA for years to end its use because they say, it's in some products that aren't even detectable just based on the color alone.

According to allrecipes.Com, red no. 3 is in Brach's candy corn, Walmart-brand cookie mixes, and Betty Crocker cookie and mashed potato mixes,

"That's a big one that came up at Christmas. You know doing coco bars at my kids' school: marshmallows! You know a lot of marshmallows to make them that bright white they're adding food dyes and normally that's a blue food dye to kind of give them that color, but it's not always where we think it would be," Smith said. "Food dies don't offer any nutritive value. They're not acting as a preservative. They're not doing anything for our food other than making it more visually appealing and as a pediatric dietician when these processed foods are very marketed to children, it's making it really difficult to put wholesome, nourishing foods on a level playing field because we're making these other ones just so enticing to kids."

Should we get rid of anything with red dye 3 right now?

Smith says maybe as they run out, you now have the information to replenish with healthy alternatives.

However, she says not to stress or fear food dyes too much because that stress also has health implications.

Instead, she says to role model a healthy relationship with food and show how everything fits in moderation.