"The chemicals, currently banned in the European Union, are found in numerous snack staples including Skittles, Mountain Dew, Ding Dongs (with red heart sprinkles) and a host of other ubiquitous food items."
It was my friends favorite birthday cake and his mom would put 1-2 bottles of dye into the cake batter. I think it was '77 or '78 and he was so disappointed... him mom eventually found some old bottles and he had a "last cake" in 1980 well after it was banned.
First three, including one with "real" in the title of the recipe, all call for food coloring.
Wikipedia says the actually-real version achieves its color by using non-Dutch-process cocoa powder, but basically no-one makes it that way, especially not home bakers (nor cheap grocery store bakeries, which is where probably 80+% of non-homemade red velvet comes from).
Wikipedia further notes that it didn't become a popular dessert to make at home until the arrival of red food coloring.
I've had red velvet cake or cupcakes probably 30+ times in my life, and I doubt a single one was made the "real" way. Food coloring, in every case, I'd bet.
The issue here is that we have a chemical which is deemed dubious enough when it comes to human safety than it is banned in the EU, but food companies would rather keep using it above any of the safer alternatives to save cents on the dollar instead of protecting the US population.
edit: to explain more. There is always a possibility that a meteor is going to crash through my roof and kill me this instant but the probability of that happening are very very very tiny.
Precautionary principle or something like this.
The regulators who are supposed to protect people in the US work to set themselves up for their next job going to work at the companies they're currently regulating.