 | | | | This is your Marketplace Watchdog for Friday, Jan. 17, 2025.
By: Dexter McMillan
| | |  | | | Red dye No. 3 banned from foods, U.S. regulator says
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U.S. regulators on Wednesday banned the additive called red dye No. 3 from the nation's food supply, nearly 35 years after it was barred from cosmetics because of potential cancer risk.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials granted a 2022 petition filed by two dozen food safety and health advocates, who urged the agency to revoke authorization for the substance that gives some candies, snack cakes and maraschino cherries a bright red hue.
The agency said it was taking the action as a "matter of law" because some studies have found that the dye caused cancer in lab rats. Officials cited a statute known as the Delaney Clause, which requires FDA to ban any additive found to cause cancer in people or animals.
The dye is known as erythrosine, FD&C red No. 3 or red 3. The ban removes it from the list of approved colour additives in foods, dietary supplements and oral medicines, such as cough syrups. More than three decades ago, the FDA declined to authorize use of Red 3 in cosmetics and externally applied drugs because a study showed it caused cancer when eaten by rats.
"The FDA is taking action that will remove the authorization for the use of FD&C red No. 3 in food and ingested drugs," said Jim Jones, the FDA's deputy commissioner for human foods. "Evidence shows cancer in laboratory male rats exposed to high levels of FD&C red No. 3. Importantly, the way that FD&C red No. 3 causes cancer in male rats does not occur in humans."
The International Association of Color Manufacturers defends the dye, saying that it is safe in levels typically consumed by humans. The group points to research by scientific committees operated by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, including a 2018 review that reaffirmed the safety of red 3 in food.
Some food manufacturers have already reformulated products to remove red 3. Read more
- Watch Marketplace's investigation into food dyes here in Canada, "Banned in Europe, sold in Canada. What’s in your food?", on YouTube or CBC Gem.
| | |  | | | The painting that vanished — and the $11 million lawsuit alleging conspiracy and neglect
| It's been about a decade since Michael Murray saw the painting of Tea Lake Dam he received from his uncle in 1977 — a piece he says is an original Tom Thomson and whose disappearance sparked an $11-million lawsuit with a Toronto auction house that claims it never accepted the alleged masterwork.
A gift following Murray's graduation from medical school, the painting hung in his uncle's Ottawa home, a property he inherited from Flora Scrim, the owner of a local flower shop where he worked. The painting came with the estate and Murray says it's believed it was a gift to Scrim's brother from the renowned Canadian painter.
But though he can trace how the 8x12-inch painting came into his family's possession, neither Murray nor a private investigator can find what happened to it, they say, since it was sent to be sold at Waddington's Auctioneers & Appraisers.
"I felt stupid — taken advantage of," the 74-year-old told CBC News.
The suit alleges the painting's disappearance was caused by "gross negligence" and alleges the auction house and a former employee "conspired one with the other" to withhold the painting from Murray.
None of the claims have been tested in court. In its statement of defence, Waddington's denies the allegations, saying the painting was never at the auction house. It also questions the authenticity of the painting, which is a small, colourful landscape believed to be depicting Algonquin Park's Tea Lake Dam in Ontario. Read more
| | |  | | | 2nd person arrested, more charges laid in $70K Taylor Swift ticket scam
| Toronto police say they have arrested a second person and laid more charges in a Taylor Swift ticket scam that cost fans nearly $70,000.
A 56-year-old man from nearby Burlington has been charged with 19 counts of possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000, police said in a news release Wednesday.
Police have also laid additional charges against a 44-year-old Burlington woman who was arrested in November.
The woman has been charged with fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000, police said Wednesday.
She also now faces eight counts each of fraud under $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000.
In November, the woman was charged with 32 counts each of fraud under $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000. She was also charged with one count each of fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000. Read more
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