Ingredient database › Red 40
Is Red 40 good or bad in dog food?
Red 40 is a colouring agent and rates as Avoid in our analysis.
Avoid Bottom line: Red 40 is best avoided — it has no real place in dog food and pulls a recipe's grade down.
Artificial dye — purely cosmetic, best avoided.
This is an ingredient we'd avoid. When it shows up — particularly near the start of the list — it pulls the whole recipe's grade down.
Built on AAFCO & FDA pet-food criteria · Last updated June 2026 · How we rate
What is Red 40?
Red 40 is a colouring agent used in dog food. On a label it may also appear as: red 40, red dye 40, fd&c red no. 40, allura red.
What to look for on the label
Ingredients are listed by weight, so the ones near the top make up most of the recipe. Red 40 ideally should not be in your dog's food at all. The fastest way to judge a whole product is to paste its full ingredient list into our free dog food checker, which grades it A–F and flags every ingredient like this one.
How Red 40 affects the WoofScore
Our grade rewards named whole proteins, vegetables, fruit and beneficial supplements, and penalises vague by-products, cheap fillers, artificial colours and controversial preservatives. Red 40 contributes as a avoid-tier item; read the full scoring methodology to see exactly how the grade is calculated.