Coffee Time Blog 04 | Red Dye #2 – The Red Scare Caused by the Red Scare

Good morning! It’s 7:00 a.m. on October 15th, 2025, and it’s coffee time.

You know, I’ve been feeling a bit nostalgic lately. I originally planned to write about those hideous but wonderful artificially flavored banana popsicle Twin Pops I enjoyed in the ’60s and ’70s from ice cream trucks. But as I was researching, I stumbled upon something else, and I thought, “Let’s talk about red dye #2!.”

I started wondering, “Why is blue raspberry blue?” which was the entrance to the ole rabbit hole. Some of the reasons I discovered when I Googled my questions were that it helps distinguish raspberry from other red flavors like cherry and strawberry. THEN, I saw  in 1976, the FDA banned Red Dye #2, so blue became readily available to some companies to make the artificial raspberry flavor more acceptable. And that’s when it hit me: Red Dye #2! Here we go.

I never really cared, and I don’t think anyone I knew did. We all know that the FDA has some crazy things going on, whether you agree with it or not – it’s always been historically wild. In 1976, the Food and Drug Administration in the United States banned Red Dye #2 because it was made from a plant genus or family called amaranth. Because, believe it or not, during the Cold War, a study conducted in the Soviet Union (the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) during the “Big Red Scare” claimed it caused tumors in rats. This is according to an article from February 29th, 1976, in The New York Times.

I never knew this! As a kid in the ’60s and ’70s, I really didn’t care, but Red Food Dye #2 was in things like Kool-Aid and red M&Ms. And, between 1976 and 1987, Mars Inc. removed the red M&M altogether. That’s an entire decade without a red M&M! And it wasn’t even because they used Red Dye #2; they just didn’t want people to assume they did. Smooth move?

It’s ironic, isn’t it? In a time when there was a lot of anxiety between the United States and the Soviet Union, we trusted one of their food tests. Imagine, just for a moment, in this day and age, whether you agree with the guy or not, it would be pretty funny to see Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. sitting before Congress explaining red M&M dangers. We all laugh at Congressional hearings at some point or another, whether at Democrats, Republicans, or the people in between. I digress.

This all goes to show that most of us in the United States don’t grow our own food or slaughter our own meat, so we have to trust the ingredients in things. Neanderthals ate organic food, and they didn’t live past their mid 30s! In my humble opinion, a lot of the dangers to North Americans have to do with food.

In closing, when I was growing up, I never gave Red Dye #2 a second thought and my parents didn’t either. But, a lot of people said, and some still do, “Don’t eat anything red, or it’ll make your kid hyper,” and all that stuff. 

You all have a great day out there. Be good to each other, love one another, accept one another the best you can, and I’ll see you at the next coffee time.

I’m gonna go eat a red popsicle.

Love,

Mark