The color of food is an integral part of our culture and enjoyment of life. Who would deny the mouth-watering appeal of a deep-pink strawberry ice cream on a hot summer day?

Even early civilizations such as the Romans recognized that people “eat with their eyes” as well as their palates. Saffron and other spices were often used to provide a rich yellow color to various foods. Butter has been colored yellow as far back as the 1300’s.

Color as Food Additive:

A color additive is any dye, pigment or substance which when added or applied to a food, is capable of imparting color. It is used to restore or reinforce color lost during processing or storage or to give desired color to food or to ensure uniformity from batch to batch.

FAO is responsible for regulating all color additives to ensure that foods containing color additives are safe to eat contain only approved ingredients and are accurately labeled. Without color additives, colas wouldn’t be brown and margarine wouldn’t be yellow. Color additives are now recognized as an important part of practically all processed foods we eat.

Importance of Food Colors

  1. Color has always had an important implication on the minds of people as far as food is concerned. Cuisines prepared in attractive colors have immensely lured men folk in all the quarters of the world. It is therefore very necessary to preserve the natural or maintain the characteristic color of a food product while it is manufactured or stored for future use. A non-attractive color however makes the food look unfresh and is likely to be rejected.
  1. The color of food is a significant factor in determining its acceptance. We expect to see food looking natural. Many consumers associate natural products with superior quality and a good, natural looking color in a food or beverage will signal high quality while a washed out or artificially bright product can give the opposite impression.
  1. Natural appearance is appetizing. We become cautious when a food shows an unexpected color, interpreting it as a possible sign of spoilage or poor processing.
  1. Color in food and drink products is important to the manufacturer primarily because it is important to his customers. They live in a world full of color; they eat food which is colored by nature and expect the foods produced by manufacturers to be similarly colored as appropriate. Foods and drinks throughout the world particularly vegetables and fruits abound in color. Chefs roast, toast and bake dishes to give an attractive color. Beverages are processed to give certain characteristic color.
  1. The contribution to the appearance and attractiveness of foods is paramount, partly because we expect foods to have their own characteristic appearance including color and partly because color is important in the perception of flavor. We can say that color can label flavor type. In prepared foods deriving from nature we expect the color to be associated with the flavor so that asparagus soup should be green and raspberry ice-cream is expected to be red.
  1. Adding colors to food is also important to offset the color loss due to light, air, extreme temperature, moisture and processing of food.
  1. Color can also assist in the use or measurement of products. It indicates whether the ingredients have been properly mixed or not like in cake batter.
  1. It is also important to provide a colorful appearance to certain “Fun Food” to attract consumers especially children. Candies are colored to create a festive appearance.
  2.  Color can also give some assistance in how much to use. It can help us in judging the quantity of margarine spread on white bread or of orange squash to water.

Are You or Your Family Eating Toxic Food Dyes?

Food dyes are one of the most widely used and dangerous additives. While the European Union has recently placed regulations on labeling food dyes to inform consumers of the health risks, the United States has no such requirement.

Here are some of the most common food dyes used today, according to the Food Freedom Network:

  • Blue #1 (Brilliant Blue)An unpublished study suggested the possibility that Blue 1 caused kidney tumors in mice.What it’s in: Baked goods, beverages, desert powders, candies, cereal, drugs, and other products.
  • Blue #2 (Indigo Carmine)Causes a statistically significant incidence of tumors, particularly brain gliomas, in male rats. What it’s in: Colored beverages, candies, pet food, & other food and drugs.
  • Citrus Red #2

    It’s toxic to rodents at modest levels and caused tumors of the urinary bladder and possibly other organs. What it’s in: Skins of Florida oranges.
  • Green #3 (Fast Green)Caused significant increases in bladder and testes tumors in male rats. What it’s in: Drugs, personal care products, cosmetic products except in eye area, candies, beverages, ice cream, sorbet, ingested drugs, lipsticks, and externally applied cosmetics.
  • Red #3 (Erythrosine)Recognized in 1990 by the FDA as a thyroid carcinogen in animals and is banned in cosmetics and externally applied drugs. What it’s in: Sausage casings, oral medication, maraschino cherries, baked goods, and candies.
  • Red #40 (Allura Red)This is the most-widely used and consumed dye. It may accelerate the appearance of immune system tumors in mice. It also causes hypersensitivity (allergy-like) reactions in some consumers and might trigger hyperactivity in children. What it’s in: Beverages, bakery goods, dessert powders, candies, cereals, foods, drugs, and cosmetics.
  • Yellow #5 (Tartrazine)Yellow 5 causes sometimes-severe hypersensitivity reactions and might trigger hyperactivity and other behavioral effects in children. What it’s in: Pet foods, numerous bakery goods, beverages, dessert powders, candies, cereals, gelatin desserts, and many other foods, as well as pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
  • Yellow #6 (Sunset Yellow)Caused adrenal tumors in animals and occasionally causes severe hypersensitivity reactions. What it’s in: Color bakery goods, cereals, beverages, dessert powders, candies, gelatin deserts, sausage, cosmetics, and drugs.

Stick to Naturally Colored Foods for Your Health

Let me make it clear that your diet should include a range of vibrantly colored foods … but these foods should be the ones that are naturally rich in color. Red bell peppers, purple eggplant, green spinach, blueberries and rainbow chard are all examples of healthy foods whose bright colors are signs of the important nutrients they contain.

These are the food colors you need in your diet … not the man-made varieties found in most processed foods. The good news is avoiding artificial food dyes is incredibly easy — just stick to whole fresh foods and avoid the processed ones. If you need help breaking an addiction to processed foods, these seven steps will help you wean off of them in favor of healthier, unprocessed, natural alternatives.