Sam Amico
There have been plenty of rumors surrounding red M&M’s, none of them true. For starters, if they were so bad for you, they wouldn’t be floating around on Valentine’s Day. And now, they of course are everywhere.
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But if red M&M’s are just fine, why did they go missing from the regular packs for about a decade, beginning in the late 1970s?
Food Coloring Issue
Well, as explained by Live Science, it was the result of the food coloring, known as FD&C Red No. 2, which was called into question by the Food and Drug Administration in 1976. Five years prior, the dye had been linked to cancer by a study in Russia.
Since it was used in so many products beyond M&M’s — such as ice cream and hot dog casings — the public demanded that the government look into it. The FDA responded, and discovered that the red dye actually caused tumors in laboratory rats. Or at least, in female rats.
That led the FDA to ban the substance, deeming it potentially unsafe for humans.
So the M&M’s suffered — despite the fact that particular red dye was never used in M&M’s. It was just that they didn’t want to be associated with it at the time.
“The red food coloring in question was not actually used in M&M’s chocolate candies,” per mms.com. “However, to avoid consumer confusion, the red candies were pulled from the color mix.”
Red M&M’s Return
Mars, the company that owns M&M’s, then decided to replace the red candies with orange. After all, the last thing you need is for people to steer clear of your product.
Eventually, red was brought back once people forgot about the dangerous dye — again, never associated with M&M’s in the first place — and has become among the favorites. Even better, the orange M&M’s remain.
Of course, this is all about a color scheme, and not really about taste. They’re all the same in that department, and that’s the department everyone loves most.
Now I don’t eat any of them.