You may or may not be aware of the use of dyes or color additives to common foods, cosmetics, and medications. Many items contain color additives to enhance the color of the product.

You might be thinking, “Who cares if there are color additives in products? I love pink frosting on my cupcakes!”

Color additives are something that need to be worried about. Even the FDA admits there is a link between certain color additives and behavioral issues in children. But, the FDA does not pull these color additives off of the shelves.

A direct quote from the FDA website states:

“The FDA has reviewed and will continue to examine the effects of color additives on children’s behavior. The totality of scientific evidence indicates that most children have no adverse effects when consuming foods containing color additives, but some evidence suggests that certain children may be sensitive to them.”

While the FDA has stated that only some children have adverse reactions to color additives, more and more evidence is emerging that children are becoming more and more sensitive to certain colors. Not to mention, foods that are rich in color additives are marketed toward children.

There are nine color additives that the FDA have deemed safe for human consumption in food. These color additives are:

• Blue No. 1 –
  • This additive is found primarily in beverages, cereals, frostings, popsicles, and frozen dairy desserts
  • The effects of blue no. 1 have been researched in mice and it has been known to cause kidney tumors.
• Blue No. 2 –
  • This additive has been found in cereals, baked goods, snacks, ice cream, and yogurt.
  • Effects of blue no. 2 show brain tumors in mice.
• Green No. 3 –
  • This additive is found is cereal, ice cream, candy, and drink mixers.
  • In mice this has shown to cause tumors in the bladder and testes in males.
• Orange B –
  • This additive is only approved for hot dogs and sausage casings.
  • Why is there a need to color enhance hot dogs and sausage casings?
• Citrus Red No. 2 –
  • This additive is only approved to enhance the color of orange peels.
  • Why do orange peels need to have enhanced colors?
• Red No. 3 –
  • This additive is used in cereal, frosting, cherries, candy, and baked goods.
  • This additive has been banned in cosmetics and topical drugs, but not food.
• Red No. 40 –
  • This is the most widely used dye and is found in cereals, candy, drugs, cosmetics, beverages, and dairy products.
  • This additive is the most commonly associated with allergy reactions and hyperactivity in children.
• Yellow No. 5 –
  • This is found is cereals, condiments, beverages, baked goods, and yogurt.
  • Can also cause hyperactivity and behavioral issues in children.
• Yellow No. 6 –
  • This is found in cereals, snack foods, gelatins, beverages, crackers, and sauces.
  • Yellow no. 6 have been linked to adrenal tumors and hyperactivity in children.

This is quite a bit of information and can seem incredibly overwhelming. To simplify it, most color additives are found in snacks, candies, cereals, and beverages. These are the typical foods that children love to eat! And, color additives seem to affect children the most!

Are Color Additives Necessary?

The only reason for color additives are to enhance the color of food. The FDA states: “Color additives are important components for many products , making them attractive, appealing, appetizing, and informative.”

In other words, there is no real reason to include food additives in foods, except to make them look better. Since the FDA has already established a link between behavioral issues in children and certain color additives, I do not understand how they are still allowed.

How to Avoid Color Additives?

Luckily, the FDA requires color additives to be clearly labeled in the ingredients. This means that if a food contains red no. 40, on the ingredients list there will be red no. 40 labeled.

While it is easy to see what color additives are in a product, it is not always easy to avoid them. Like I have said, many snacks loved by children contain these color additives. The best way to avoid these are to read labels. Reading labels can seem like a overwhelming task, but with color additives, it is pretty simple. If you see a color and a number on a bod, that’s a color additive. They can not be rolled up into a different chemical name.

The best part about color additives is that they are really being discussed right now. More and more consumers are demanding that brands remove these synthetic color additives and use natural ones. Kraft was persuaded to change the color additives in their ever popular Macaroni and Cheese after consumers signed a petition for them to do so.

The best thing consumers can do is to stop buying food that have these color additives. That way brands will know if they want to stay in business, they will have to remove them!

Take a peak in your pantry and see what color additives are lurking in your foods!