Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman criticized Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week, saying the agency took too long to ban Red No. 3 of the US food supply.

“For how many years how many children and adults were exposed to this dangerous toxin and the @US_FDA did nothing?” Ackman posted on Thursday X.

He speculated that the incoming Trump administration moved the needle, telling supporters that the FDA “finally decides to do its job” days before President-elect Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

FDA BANS ARTIFICIAL RED DYE: WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE CONSUMER

Ackman also argued that Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, “will have to clean house at the FDA.”

“We also need to understand how the food industry pressured the FDA to continue allowing them to poison the American people,” Ackman continued.

However, the federal agency has stated that any “claims that the use of FD&C Red No. 3 in food and in ingested drugs puts people at risk are not supported by available scientific information.”

Even so, the FDA issued an order on Wednesday to revoke the authorization for the use of Red No. 3, also known as Erythrosine and giving off a bright cherry red color, in ingested food and medicine.

The decision follows review of a petition that argues, under a rule called the Delaney Clause, the FDA should ban this color additive in foods and drugs at the federal level because it has been shown that cause cancer in animals.

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The dye has been used primarily in a wide range of food products, including candies, cakes and cupcakes, cookies, frozen desserts, ice creams and ice creams, as well as certain ingested drugs. However, for more than three decades, it has been banned in cosmetics and topical medications after data showed that it is assocd. with animal carcinogenicity.

The FDA said male laboratory rats in two separate studies developed cancer after being “exposed to high levels of FD&C Red No. 3 due to a rat-specific hormonal mechanism.”

Federal officials said the way Red No. 3 causes cancer in male rats does not occur in humans and that the relevant exposure levels to the artificial dye for humans are usually much lower than those causing the effects shown in male rats.

“Studies in other animals and in humans did not show these effects; claims that the use of FD&C Red No. 3 in food and in ingested drugs puts people at risk are not supported by the available scientific information,” he continued the fda

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From now on, any manufacturer that uses the dye in food and ingested drugs will have until January 15, 2027 or January 18, 2028, respectively, to reformulate their products.

That means consumers could still see it as an ingredient in a food or drug product on the market after the dates listed above if the product was manufactured before the effective date, according to the FDA.