The
United States Food and Drug Administration, the department tasked to ensure the safety the
American food and drug supply, certifies over
11.5 million pounds of color additives a year. The use of coloring additives in food can be traced back to the
Egyptians, but it has only recently become a real
medical concern. Why the sudden problem? Progress and the
20th century boom in
chemistry. Since the late 1950's, the food processing industries in
North America have turned to using more
exotic chemicals to color food, and in increasing doses. Perhaps the most famous case is that of the heavy use of suspected
cancer-causing
Red Dye #2.
During the 1800s, the birth of the
processed food industry in
North America also ushered in the age of
food additives. Preservative chemicals saw heavy use in the new
tinned food industry, as a means of preventing
spoilage. Some preservation techniques
discolored the products being packaged, so colorant additives soon came into
widespread use. Chemicals previously employed in
textile and
chemical coloring where pressed into service with little or no human testing. At the dawn of the
Twentieth century, a revolution in chemistry saw the bulk of food colorants being refined from
petroleum and
coal.
Aniline, a chemical that is
toxic in its unrefined form, was refined from
bituminous coal and used extensively in the creation of the "
coal-tar" family of colorants. Natural colorants, derived from
plant,
animal and
mineral sources declined in popularity against these new chemical
wonders, as they overcame the limitations inherent in their competitors: they could be used in very
small amounts, they added no
unwanted flavors and they could be made for a
fraction of the cost.
In response to misuses of
industrial textile dyes in food, and a growing concerns over an
unregulated industry, the US Congress passed the
Pure Food and Drugs Act in
1906, allowing the federal government to scrutinize and control
colorant additive use. The government then went on to pass the
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, which extended the FDA's mandate into the certification and regulation of all
additives used in American
foods, drugs and cosmetics. An "
FD&C" label designates a chemical as being permitted for use in food, drugs and cosmetics within the
United States. The famous labels applied to many coloring additives were assigned by the FDA after this law was
passed.
Red was the color used most often by food processors, and a purplish-red
synthetic coal tar or
azo dye called
Amaranth was easily the most widely used. Designated
Red Dye #2, it became the most widely used colorant overall. That was until
1960, when amendments to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 prohibited the use of potentially
cancer causing chemicals in food products, even in minute amounts. The so-called "
Delaney Clause" would have a direct impact on the industry in
1976.
FD&C Red Dye #2's true chemical name is
Trisodium-2- hydroxyl -1-(4-sulphonato- 1-napthylazo) napthelene- 3-6-disulfonate. In 1969,
Soviet scientists performing similar tests to those conducted by the FDA discovered that long-term usage of Red Dye #2, even at the low dosages found in foods, caused
cancer in test subjects. Contrary to the
Delaney Clause, the FDA conducted its own tests, following the Soviet guidelines. The results they received were
inconclusive. Regardless, the word had gotten out to the
public. The
Health Research Group, a consumer action organization, launched a
rabid campaign to have the dye banned. Giving into public and
Congressional pressure, FDA banned FD&C Red No. 2 in 1976.
Even after the ban, the FDA refused to say the Red Dye #2 caused
cancer. Within the FDA, The
Toxicology Advisory Committee was tasked with finding a
definitive link. Testing outside the parameters relayed to them by the Soviets, the Committee found "feeding FD&C Red No. 2 at a
high dosage results in a statistically significant increase in
malignant tumors in female rats."
This was still not
absolute proof, but the sociological pressure to keep the ban in place remained. The FDA has since revised the wording of the ban to reflect the lack of overwhelming proof to note that the color cannot be proven definitely
safe or
nontoxic.
The effects of the ban where
immediate and
profound. People began to question exactly what the chemicals listed on food products actually
were. A trend toward '
all-natural' foods, combined with a new awareness of how foods where being processed lead to manufacturers limiting the amount of
additives they used in manufacturing.
Preservative chemicals long assumed safe were reexamined. Some companies even reduced or halted marketing of
red colored products after the ban, as consumers assumed they were
unsafe.
It should be noted that this lack of
definite proof has lead other countries to allow the use of the dye. The
United Kingdom,
Canada and a majority of the
EU allow its use in products today. The
stigma attached to the Red Dye #2 remains a
uniquely American phenomenon. The ban also leads some food manufacturers to not
ship their products to the US. The replacement for Red Dye #2 in the United States is
FD&C Red #40, and it has become the most widely used colorant in food products worldwide, largely filling the
niche left by its
mysterious cousin.