PEEPS® Fun Facts Just Born produces enough PEEPS® Brand Marshmallow Candies in one year to circle the earth twice. In the late 1950s PEEPS® wings were “clipped” to give them a sleek, modern look. PEEPS® Brand Candies have been the #1 non-chocolate brand at Easter for more than 20 years*.

In 1953, Just Born acquired Rodda Candy Co., which originally made the candy we know as Peeps – but with wings. The original marshmallow chicks were more labor-intensive, requiring manually squeezing marshmallow paste out of pastry tubes. The original Peeps had wings.

Caption Options. On Monday customer advocacy nonprofit Consumer Reports advised Americans that purple and pink Peeps marshmallow bunnies are made with Red Dye No. 3, which is known to cause cancer in animals and has been banned by the FDA from use in cosmetics since 1990.

What Are Peeps Made Of? Making Peeps only requires three ingredients: sugar, corn syrup and gelatin. The chicks' eyes, are made from food-grade carnauba wax.

The average person in the United States eats about 24 pounds of candy per year. The first lollipop machine was invented in 1908 by George Smith, who used a hand-crank to make his "Prelo Pop." The world's oldest candy company is still in operation today – NECCO (New England Confectionery Company) was founded in 1847.

Joshua Parker at ExpressER who said peeps are pretty similar to most other candies. "They all have pretty high amounts of sugar," Parker said. "So, if you have any particular candy in high levels, it's going to be unhealthy. And Peeps, for the amount of sugar they have, they're about equal to a can of coke."

The California Food Safety Act bars the manufacture, sale or distribution in the state of any items containing red dye No. 3, potassium bromate, brominated vegetable oil or propyl paraben. The dye is carcinogen and is used in purple and pink Peeps as well as the candy Hot Tamales, according to Consumer Reports.

Peeps is slang for friends. An example of peeps are the people that someone hangs out with all the time.

A popular sweet treat is causing concern among parents for its potentially harmful ingredient list. Peeps - the sugar-coated marshmallow candy popularized especially around Easter time due to its bunny shape - includes Red Dye 3, an additive considered a known carcinogen by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

They don't actually taste that good Sure, Peeps come in different colors, but those colors all have the same taste: stale goo, even when they're not actually stale. And if a sizable amount of the Peep-consuming population thinks they taste best when they are stale, they probably just shouldn't be eaten.

Peeps are a marshmallow confection marketed since 1953 in the United States and Canada in the shape of chicks, bunnies, and other animals as well as holiday shapes produced by Pennsylvania-headquartered Just Born Quality Confections.

Bethlehem, PA We employ more than 600 associates, most of whom are at our world headquarters and candy factory in Bethlehem, PA, where we produce PEEPS®, MIKE AND IKE® and HOT TAMALES® Candies.

The look, taste, smell, and texture of candy are all linked in our brains to feel-good memories of love, comfort, happiness and time spent with our families. That's why, when you eat certain candies, you are instantly bombarded with nostalgic memories from your childhood.

Here are the top 10 most popular candies in America, according to CandyStore.com:

• Hot tamales.
• Skittles.
• Sour Patch Kids.
• Starburst.
• Hershey Kisses.
• Candy Corn.
• Hershey Mini Bars.
• Snickers.

Peeps are colored marshmallows that have no nutritional value, but to many may have sentimental value. The color is not healthy, but that is a separate issue (food coloring and food additives).

"Parents should know that the purple and pink colored Peeps they may be putting in their kids' Easter basket are made with an ingredient that is a known carcinogen," Michael Hansen, a senior staff scientist for Consumer Reports, said in a press release.