The FDA order stripping Orange B of its authorization as a food color additive takes effect today. As of September 8, any certificates for existing batches of the dye stop being effective; any remaining lots count as uncertified, and any food colored with it after this date is legally adulterated.
That is the part of this action with actual legal force, and it is easy to lose in the coverage. Nothing comes off a grocery shelf today. Orange B has not been batch certified since 1978, and the FDA has received no requests to certify it since. The agency concluded that industry abandoned the authorized use decades ago.
