What’s in your food?
A primer on artificial food colorings.

In part one of this series, the issue of studies relating artificial food colorings and artificial additives presenting a link to childhood hyperactivity was explored. In this part, we look at artificial food coloring.

The list of artificial food coloring studied included tetrazine (FD&C yellow no. 5/European food code E102); sunset yellow (FD&C yellow no. 6/E110); quinoline yellow (FD&C Yellow No. 10/E104); carmoisine (Food Red 3/E122); and ponceau 4R (Food Red 7/E124).

All of these are considered color additives by the FDA, which by definition are: “any dye, pigment or substance that can impart color when added or applied to a food, drug, or cosmetic, or to the human body.” And according to the FDA, they are added to food “for many reasons, including to offset color loss due to storage or processing of foods and to correct natural variations in food color.”

Anyone who has made guacamole from scratch for example knows that after about a half hour, it loses that rich avocado green color, whereas from a commercial mix, it stays green even long after it has grown a moldy fuzz – all thanks to artificial color additives.

While coloring additives have been heavily monitored and regulated since 1960 and the FDA believes that they are safe, but the recent research may indeed prove otherwise because “both the Food Additives and Color Additives Amendments include a provision which prohibits the approval of an additive if it is found to cause cancer in humans or animals.” This statement makes it seem as if the FDA only raises concern once an additive is found to be carcinogenic – a growing epidemic of childhood hyperactivity is not enough to make revisions or adjustments.

The problem is that while manufacturers can only use the regulated amounts of coloring additives in their products, there are thousands of products that we consume daily that contain these “small, regulated amounts.” Consider this: the ten largest companies that make our food use artificial colorings regularly. After how many sippy cups of juice, bags of candy, boxes of cereal, cookies and other snacks that are not whole foods consumed in one day can we be sure that those ’small, regulated amounts’ are still safe when combined? The FDA even asserts that food additives (including color additives) are in cereals, snacks, beverages and oral cosmetics/personal health care items such as toothpaste. While we don’t want to be alarmist, it might be a good time to take stock in what’s in our pantries and cabinets to find out just what we are consuming and consider alternative measures to give our kids a healthier start, even as early as in utero.

Learn more:

• FDA on the safety of color additives.
• FDA’s “Summary of Color Additives“:
  (can search by FD&C number or color name)
• FDA’s ‘What is a Color Additive?‘
• “How ‘Safe’ is Safe?”
• “Limiting your child’s intake of food additives”
• Organic Food (from BOL)
• Parenting Starts Before Pregnancy (from BOL)

Part three will look at artificial sweeteners and non-coloring additives.

Since the 1970s food additives have been under the radar of toxicologists, psychiatrists, nutritionists and environmental/public health watchdog groups. In the last decade however, with what seems to be a growing set of diagnoses of hyperactivity and other childhood behavioral and diet-related disorders, interest in food additives has increased. So has the research.

Among the latest and most controversial studies, was a 2007 Southampton University done with a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study with three-year olds and eight- to nine-year-olds to test for indications of hyperactivity associated with specific food additives and food colorings. The additives and colorings tested were tetrazine (FD&C yellow no. 5/European food code E102); sunset yellow (FD&C yellow no. 6/E110); quinoline yellow (FD&C Yellow No. 10/E104); carmoisine (Food Red 3/E122); and ponceau 4R (Food Red 7/E124).

Researchers recruited 153 local three-year-olds and 144 children aged eight or nine for a six-week trial and assigned them to either of two groups. One group was given regular fruit juice without additives and the second group was given a similar looking and tasting drink that contained the above-mentioned additives. The drinks were assigned anonymously and in un-marked, sealed bottles.

The drinks with the additives were further split into two groups: Mix A and Mix B. Mix A contained the same amount of artificial colorings found in a two-ounce bag of candy or two small bags of commercial ?fruit snacks.? Mix B contained the equivalent of twice that amount. Both mixes contained the same levels sodium benzoate.

The children were assessed prior to the trial for evidence of hyperactivity. The first week of the trial all of the children followed their typical diets. The following weeks, parents were asked to remove from their children?s diets all sweets and drinks with additives were and to start using the trial drink in amounts equal to that of the foods/beverages removed from their usual diets. On the even numbered weeks Mix A, Mix B, and placebo were administered in a random sequence and was blinded to the child, the parents, the teachers and the researchers. On the odd-numbered weeks all children received the placebo. At the end of the study, the children were assessed again for hyperactivity.

According to a 2007 report by the Agence France-Presse, ?Mix A had a ?significantly adverse? effect on the three-year-olds, although Mix B made no difference on this group. In the older children, both Mix A and Mix B had a strong effect.

?Overall, children who took the mix moved about 10 percent closer to the definition of being hyperactive,? lead author Jim Stevenson, a professor of psychology at the university. ?We now have clear evidence that mixtures of certain food colours and [sodium] benzoate preservative can adversely influence the behaviour of children. However, parents should not think that simply taking these additives out of food will prevent all hyperactive disorders. We know that many other influences are at work, but this at least is one a child can avoid.??

This study was similar to a 2004 study presented in the June issue of the Archives of Diseases in Childhood, but seems to have produced more conclusive evidence for a correlation between artificial additives in food and childhood behavioral problems, leading researchers to conclude that artificial colors or a sodium benzoate preservative (or both) in the diet result in increased hyperactivity in three-year-old and eight- to nine-year-olds in the general population.

In part two, each of the food additives studied will be discussed.

For more information:

• Abstract of the 2007 Study
• 2004 Study