What is Food Dye?

Where do food dyes come from?

Synthetic dyes are made from petroleum (crude oil) which is also the source for gasoline. You will find them on the ingredient labels, listed as "Yellow No. 5," "Red 40," "Blue #1," etc. The label may say "FD&amp;C" before the number. That means "Food, Drug &amp; Cosmetics." When you see a number listed as "D&amp;C" in a product, such as "D&amp;C Red #33" it means that this coloring is considered safe for medicine (drugs) and cosmetics, but not for food. (from the Feingold diet site http://www.feingold.org/pg-overview.html)

The CSPI cites FDA statistics that the amount of food dye certified for use in 1955 was 12 milligrams per capita per day whereas in 2007, 59 mg per capita per day, or nearly five times as much, was certified for use.

From the National Toxicity Program, synthetic dyes metabolized to Benzidine (Benzidine Dyes as a Class) which is known to be a human carcinogen. http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/go/12155

Below are the chemical compounds of the Azo dyes used in food, from the site: http://www.food-info.net/uk/colour/azo.htm