Red 3 (E127): What the Sources Found

Erythrosine (Red 3) is the colour the food industry lists as E127. In our table it is high risk: it takes 30 of the 33 additive points off a product's score for a child.

In short

High risk. 30 of the 33 additive points come off a product that carries it.
Flagged for young children. Set only where EFSA’s own exposure assessment shows toddlers or children exceeding or approaching the ADI, or where a regulator used explicitly child-specific language. For a child under 6 it moves one class up.
4 citations from FDA, Law, EFSA, OEHHA, each one below.

What Red 3 does to a score

A packaged food starts with 33 points for what is in its ingredient list. Red 3 takes 30 of the 33 additive points off a product's score, and a child under 6 sees it one class higher again. Scan the pack in Sito and the score you get is the one for your own child's age, with this additive named in the reasons. How we score has the whole method.

What the sources found

Every classification in our table comes from the citations below, and nothing else. They are quoted as the source wrote them.

FDA Federal Register 2025-00830 (2025-01-16); fda.gov/industry/color-additives/fdc-red-no-3
FDA revoked the colour additive listing for FD&C Red No. 3 in food and ingested drugs on 2025-01-15 under the Delaney Clause; food reformulation deadline 2027-01-15 (drugs 2028-01-18).
Law US-CA: AB 418, California Food Safety Act (2023), codified at Health and Safety Code §109025; leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=109025.&lawCode=HSC
California Health and Safety Code §109025, added by AB 418 (Stats. 2023, ch. 328): from 2027-01-01 no person or entity may 'manufacture, sell, deliver, distribute, hold, or offer for sale, in commerce a food product for human consumption' containing red dye 3 (CAS 16423-68-0) — listed alongside brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate and propylparaben.
EFSA 10.2903/j.efsa.2011.1854
ADI retained at 0.1 mg/kg bw/day - among the lowest for any food colour; thyroid tumorigenic effects in rats judged secondary to effects on thyroid function rather than genotoxic.
OEHHA (2021) synthetic food dyes / children neurobehavioral assessment
Red 3 is one of the seven dyes assessed. OEHHA's overall conclusion is that synthetic food dyes can impact neurobehavior in some children; its review of human studies suggests that synthetic food dyes are associated with adverse neurobehavioral effects, such as inattentiveness, hyperactivity and restlessness in sensitive children, and that some children are likely to be more adversely affected than others.

Why this class

IARC Group 1 or 2A with a dietary exposure route; or EFSA has withdrawn or negated a safety conclusion; or EFSA’s own exposure assessment finds a child age group exceeding the ADI at mean intake; or the substance is banned or formally being phased out for food use by the EU, by the US FDA, or under a US state law.

Our confidence in this row's classification is high. Medium or low does not mean the evidence is weak; it means something about the row is still being pinned down, usually a regulatory status confirmed from one source rather than two.