Food Dye Bans Are Long Overdue

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking action to ban the use of synthetic food dyes, including Red Dye 3, Yellow Dye 5, Blue Dye 1, and others. This is long overdue.

Way back in 1990, the FDA banned Red Dye 3 in cosmetics after finding increased rates of cancer in rats who ate the dye. Over 20 years ago, a double-blind, placebo controlled study found “There is a general adverse effect of artificial food colouring and benzoate preservatives on the behaviour of 3 year old children.”

By 2007, additional studies had found similar results in children of various ages, including a study by the United Kingdom’s Committee on Toxicity. That study concluded that food dyes and preservatives “are associated with an increase in hyperactivity in children.” Evidence has continued to mount since that time, including animal studies showing connections between artificial food dyes and cancer.

I first learned about the potential harms of artificial food dyes long ago when I was still an aerospace engineer, just embarking upon motherhood. Prior to that, like many others, I had assumed that the ingredients in food must be safe. The evidence against food dyes was compelling enough that I stopped buying foods containing dyes and continued looking deeper into other potential problems with our food supply. Ever since then, I have continued to ensure that my two kids have grown up with very little exposure to food dyes. It just isn’t worth the risk.

Since 2010, European regulations have required that foods containing artificial dyes have a warning statement about their potential impacts on children.  While parents in Europe were warned that food dyes “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children,” families in the USA have continued to eat artificial food dyes without understanding the risks. Until recently, the FDA looked on without saying a word, even as rates of chronic disease and Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder increased dramatically.

If you’ve never looked for artificial dyes in foods, take a look at the ingredient lists on foods in the grocery store and you’ll likely be surprised by what you find. Artificial food dyes are in a wide range of foods, including cereal, sodas, ice cream, candies, pickles, drink mixes, salad dressings, fruit snacks, pasta mixes, yogurts, applesauce, and even deli meats and salmon. School lunch programs are notoriously reliant on processed foods, many of which contain food dyes, too.

The FDA has been entrusted to make sure food in the USA is healthy, yet they have ignored this problem for decades and thereby failed to protect the children of our country. I am heartened to see that there is now a concerted effort to uncover and address the causes of childhood chronic disease in the USA.  I look forward to seeing what else will develop to improve our nation's food supply for the health of all.