NYC parents have mixed feelings about FDA red dye ban:

Just last week, Shany Qiu’s husband walked through the door of their Staten Island home with a box of Froot Loops he had just bought at the grocery store.

“The minute I saw it, I told her to throw it out — and never buy it again,” Qiu, the mother of two daughters, ages 5 and 7, told The Post. “The girls love it, but I hate that it’s full of artificial colors, so I told her we can only buy Cheerios or Kix from now on.”

For Qiu, the news that the FDA is banning Red No. 3 of ingested food products and medications seems like a step in the right direction.

“My little girl loves strawberry candy,” she said. “I told her that Welch’s Fruit Snacks contain artificial color and she was sad about it, but we are no longer buying these.”

For parents across the city, there is a sense of optimism about the cherry red ban, as well as disappointment that the ban won’t go into effect until 2027 for food products and 2028 for ingested drugs.

“I’m frustrated that it’s taking this long, but I’m also hopeful,” said Lesanna Beharry, a mother of three sons, ages 4, 9 and 12, who lives in Ozone Park, Queens. “At least it’s now an important topic of conversation and people are becoming more aware of how many artificial ingredients are in the foods we’re feeding our children.”

This is especially true given how long a list of popular foods contain synthetic, petroleum-derived food coloring. Included on the list: Dole Diced Fruit Cup, Dubble Bubble Original Twist Bubble Gum and even MorningStar Farms Veggie Bacon Strips.

Melanie Laugier, a Staten Island mother of son Brayden, 10, was shocked to learn that dye was an ingredient in the PediaSure strawberry-flavored shakes that Brayden had been giving since he was a toddler.

“I used it for years as a supplement if he was sick or had no appetite,” she said. “I’m upset – and very surprised – that this was on the list.”

However, Abbott Nutrition, which owns PediaSure, noted that it will remove artificial coloring from products by 2024, Fox News reported.

Walking through the aisles and reading the label

That parents have to be “label detectives” at the grocery store is something that frustrates Laugier.

“If a product has been on the shelves for years, it’s concerning to think that it would be unsafe for our children,” she said. “Food coloring is literally everywhere.”

Trips to the supermarket where brightly colored treats tempt children make the task even more stressful, Qiu said.

“Kids are like ‘mommy I want to eat this,’ ‘I want to eat that,'” she said. “I have to tell them no, we’re not going to get things with all that color in them.”

For Beharry, it’s been helpful to download Yuka, an app that allows her to scan barcodes on products and get an ingredient breakdown while she’s walking down the aisle.

“It tells you why the product is safe or not,” she said. “I also make sure I read every food label I buy and, if I can’t pronounce the name of an ingredient, I won’t buy the item.”

When Chyna Haywood goes grocery shopping with her 4-year-old daughter, Eden, she looks for fresh produce, organic brands and products that don’t contain high fructose corn syrup and artificial colors.

“I’m not surprised there’s red in those pre-made fruit cups,” said Haywood, who lives in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. “I don’t like buying fruit in a cup and I don’t like buying those bags you can’t see either. I want to see the food I’m feeding my daughter.”

Say goodbye to brightly colored frosting

Snacks that kids eat at home are one thing, but parents admit that it’s bake sales and birthday parties that are really problematic when it comes to access to colorful treats.

“When my kids see a plate full of buttercream cupcakes at a birthday party, they already know what to make,” Beharry said. “If they forget, I repeat it and say ‘Hey, let’s maybe ice it.'”

The goal is to help them stay as healthy as possible, she said.

“I know kids are kids and I don’t want them to feel like they can’t eat certain foods,” she said. “I also know it’s hard for them to control themselves when they’re around colorful foods and sweets.”

As for Laugier, she’s already worried about tempting Valentine’s Day temptations in bright reds and pinks — and figuring out how to get the paint off the sprinkles-covered cakes she loves to make.

For this family, colorful cupcakes may be a thing of the past.

“When I told Brayden that the colorful Valentine cupcakes would be on hold until the inks were reformulated, he was definitely disappointed,” she said. “He was upset.”