How a College Prank Changed the M&M Industry

Everyone knows you’re not supposed to eat red M&M’s.

A (very sketchy) Soviet study came out in the 1970’s that linked red dye #2 to cancer. Although the Russian study was unreliable, the U.S. government investigated red dye #2 and came out with it’s own inconclusive results. They couldn’t find a link between red dye #2 and cancer. However, at this point, the American public got wind of the controversy surrounding red dye and started freaking out.

Hot dogs, ice creams, and red sodas which all used red dye #2 were all pulled off the shelves in a public frenzy. The FDA, just to err on the side of caution, ruled red dye #2 not safe for consumption and banned its use in all food products.

Shortly after, Mars pulled red M&M’s off the shelves. The red M&M became the poster-candy for the red-dye scare, infamous for its cancer-causing effects. But, here’s the kicker, red M&M’s never used red dye #2; they used red dye #48. They only took it off the shelves to stay safe in the public eye. Yet, they went down in history as the cancer-causing candy.

Red M&M’s stayed off the shelves for over a decade.

However, in 1982, a freshman student at the University of Tennessee got bored and decided to play a prank on his friends. Paul Hethmon looked at the pile of junk mail in his mailbox…