OT - PARENTS URGED TO REPORT CHILDREN'S REACTIONS TO FOOD DYES

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PARENTS URGED TO REPORT CHILDREN'S REACTIONS TO FOOD DYES

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is asking America's parents

for help in its campaign to convince the Food and Drug Administration that

synthetic dyes, such as Yellow 5 and Red 40, don't belong in foods, especially

those consumed by children. The dyes are being phased out in European countries

because of important new evidence showing that the dyes, and perhaps the

preservative sodium benzoate, cause hyperactivity and other behavior problems in

children. http://www.cspinet.org/fooddyes   

 

Consumption of food dyes has increased five-fold over the past 30 years,

according to FDA data. Most multinational food companies are already phasing

those dyes out of foods in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe-even

though American versions of the very same products continue to get their colors

from synthetic dyes.  The syrup in a strawberry sundae from a McDonald's in the

U.K. gets its red color from strawberries; in the U.S., the red color comes from

2-naphthalenesulfonic acid, 6-hydroxy-5-((6-methoxy-4-sulfo-m-tolyl)azo)-,

disodium salt, a coal-derived chemical otherwise known by its less unappetizing

name, Red 40.  Similarly, a Betty Crocker yellow cake mix is colored in the

United States with Yellow 5 and Yellow 6, but in Britain with safe natural

colorings. " The food industry won't fix its American foods until the FDA tells

them to, " said Jacobson.  If companies like Mars, Kellogg, and McDonald's were

responsible, they would

immediately begin switching to safe, natural colorings in the United States. "  

http://www.cspinet