Food Colorings

Abstract

While the use of food colorings in some situations may be open to question, there is no disputing the fact that in a number of products they have been used for many years, and their presence has been accepted as desirable. This can be accounted for by the fact that many people eat with their eyes rather than their palates, in many cases a rather unfortunate situation. According to the bulletin Food Colors (National Academy of Sciences 1971), the average annual per capita consumption of food in the United States amounts to 645 kg. This contains about 5.5 g of synthetic food colors, the bulk of which (almost 85%) is made up of amaranth (FD&C Red No. 2), tartrazine (FD&C Yellow No. 5), and sunset yellow FCF (FD&C Yellow No. 6). Wine was colored as early as 200 to 300 BC. Many of these early colors were likely mineral pigments, but vegetable or animal colors could have been used. As late as the nineteenth century poisonous metallic compounds were sometimes used to color foods; in 1880 lead Chromate was found as a color in candy. There is little doubt, also, that for a long time colorings were used to cover up adulteration.