The Artificial Food Color Fight

Even though they make foods and beverages more vivid, more appealing and easier to identify, artificial colors dont have many fans. The EU Food Standards Agency is currently soliciting comments on a proposal to reduce levels of the food colors quinoline yellow, sunset yellow and ponceau 4R in food and beverages. Earlier in the year, the EU mandated that foods with artificial dyes must have labels warning they may cause hyperactivity in children. Then theres the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), who first petitioned FDA to ban the use of artificial colors, then released a report on the risks of artificial food colors.  

An article in Environmental Health Perspectives, The Artificial Food Dye Blues," offers both sides of the story with an overview of CSPIs findings, as well as comments from the International Association of Color Manufacturers and a mention of FDAs stance on the use of artificial food dyes.