Why artificial food colours are bad for your health

Love eating brightly coloured candies and ice creams? Did you know the colours used in them are highly toxic? Read more to find out!

Poorva Chavan | Updated: April 3, 2015 4:45 pm

Food colours are the one thing we encounter or consume without realising. Be it your favourite candy, tomato ketchup, jam, jelly, breakfast cereal, fruit juice, soft drink, etc., all of these products are loaded with synthetic dyes.

Synthetic dyes are coal or petroleum-based and at times are not even purified chemicals. These chemicals have a deleterious effect on your health and some of these chemicals are also carcinogenic in nature.

The Prevention of Food adulteration Act (PFA) has permitted the use of certain colours to be added to food items but their concentration has been limited to 100 parts per million (ppm) and it has been made mandatory for manufacturers to specify the use of colours on their packages.

The common permitted food colours in India are:

Colour	Common Name	Acceptable daily intake (mg/kg of body weight)
Red	Ponceau 4R	0-4
	Carmoisine	0-4
	Erythrosine	0-0.1
Yellow	Tartrazine	0-7.50-2.5
Yellow	Sunset Yellow FCF	0-7.50-2.5
Blue	Indigo Carmine	0-5
Blue	Brilliant Blue FCF	0-12.5
Green	Fast Green FCF	0-2.5

Apart from synthetic dyes, various natural dyes permitted for use are annatto, caramel, turmeric, betanin, chlorophyliin, carmine, lycopene, saffron, etc., which are derived from natural sources, such as vegetables and fruits.

Despite stringent regulations, a number of non-permitted colours like auramine (yellow), metanil yellow, lead chromate, rhodamine (pink), sudan III & IV (red) and orange II are used for colouring many food items.

How these food colours ruin your health

Auramine: Auramine is known to retard growth and damage kidneys and liver. Owing to its bright yellow colour, it is used to colour beverages.
Metanil yellow: Widely used in Indian sweets like jalebis and ladoos, it is highly dangerous as it causes degenerative changes in the lining of the stomach, kidneys and liver. It also adversely affects the ovaries and testes, proving to be dangerous to reproductive organs. It is commonly used to add colour to ladoos and biryanis and consumption of this colour has reported symptoms of giddiness, weakness and food poisoning.
Rhodamine: A major component of sweets and bright red-coloured drinks, it is known to break down red blood cells and adversely affect the immune system. It also causes growth retardation and damages the liver and kidneys.
Sudan dyes: Sudan dyes are also commonly used as the bright red colour is highly attractive and used to colour chilli powder or curry powder. It is not only highly toxic to the liver but also known to cause kidney lesions and is a probable carcinogen.
Lead chromate: Lead chromate is the bright yellow coloured dye which is also known chrome yellow. It is commonly added to turmeric powder, for imparting a bright colour. Lead chromate is highly dangerous as it causes anemia, abdominal pain, neurological problem, hypertension, foetal distress all leading to lead poisoning .
Permitted colours are equally harmful to health causing various ailments. The cherry red colour of erythrosine makes it quite popular among sweets, candy and popsicle manufacturers. It is also used in cake decorating gels and is known to damage your DNA and also interfere with the process of sperm formation and other functions of the pituitary gland¹.
Natural dyes such as Annatto dyes which are commonly used in cheese, beverages and cereals are known to trigger allergic reactions like skin rashes characterised by red itchy bumps on the skin and angioedema.².

Even though these food colours are permitted they are known to trigger certain reaction, which depends on the quantity of their consumption. One should be aware of synthetic as well as natural food colours they are exposed to every day and the possible repercussions they might have on your health. Here’s a list of all the food items in India, in which addition of food colours is permitted:

Food items	Maximum permissible level of colour (ppm)
Ice cream, milk lollies, frozen desserts, flavoured milk, yoghurt, ice cream mix powder	100
Biscuits including biscuit wafer, pastries, cakes, confectionery, thread candies, sweets and savouries	100
Peas, strawberries and cherries in containers, preserved or processed papaya, canned tomato juice, fruit syrup, fruit squash, jellies, jam, marmalade, candied fruits.	200
Non-alcoholic carbonated and non carbonated ready to serve synthetic beverages, including synthetic syrups, sherbets, fruit bear, fruit beverages, fruit drinks and synthetic soft drink concentrates.	100
Custard powder	100
Jelly crystal and ice-candy	100

References:

Chequer FM, Venâncio VP, Bianchi ML, Antunes LM. Genotoxic and mutagenic effects of erythrosine B, a xanthene food dye, on HepG2 cells. Food Chem Toxicol.2012 Oct;50(10):3447-51. doi:10.1016/j.fct.2012.07.042. Epub 2012 Jul 28. PubMed PMID: 22847138.
Nish WA, Whisman BA, Goetz DW, Ramirez DA. Anaphylaxis to annatto dye: a case report. Ann Allergy. 1991 Feb;66(2):129-31. PubMed PMID:1994783.

Image source: Getty Images

Published: January 7, 2015 6:06 pm | Updated:April 3, 2015 4:45 pm

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