CA Update - Marcia Ehinger

Marcia Ehinger is a retired physician who writes in many genres, poetry and prose. A member of the Sacramento Branch of the California Writers Club, she has had poems and short stories published in several CWC anthologies and the regional medical society journal.

Food Dye Conundrums

Before the Presidential inauguration in January 2025, I was reminded of my past experience with Red Dye No. 2 when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned Red Dye No. 3 from foods. In 2023, California, concerned about behavior problems seen in children, was the first state to ban Red Dye 3 and a few other additives. In March, West Virginia banned seven dyes and two other substances.

Red No. 3, a petroleum-based derivative, was used to give candy, cupcakes, cookies, frosting, soda, and other products their vibrant cherry red hue. It could also be found in yellow rice, potatoes, and some over-the-counter medications for acid reflux and formulations of Tylenol.

After his appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told major food executives that eliminating artificial colorings was an urgent priority in his crusade to end the chronic disease epidemic among American children and adults. Removing harmful substances from the foods we eat seems reasonable. You may remember relatively recent scandals about Chinese baby formulas or pet foods which contained plastics.

The red dye decision seems long overdue, since the chemical was banned from use in cosmetics and topical drugs in 1990. It had already been banned for food use in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, with the notable exception of maraschino cherries. Some food manufacturers were already embracing natural red food colorings, including those extracted from beets, red cabbage, and insects.

Throughout history, man has searched for ways to add color to food, developing natural dyes from the world around us. In Medieval Europe, dyers guilds guarded their secret formulas closely. Good colorants were hard to find and worth their weight in gold. Saffron, composed of tiny, dried stamens from a crocus flower, imparts a bright yellow color. It is used mostly in cooking today, but still very expensive.

People in southern Mexico began breeding the cochineal beetles, which live on prickly pear cacti, as early as 2000 BCE. The red pigment from dried, crushed bugs was traded throughout Central and South America and even used by villagers to pay taxes.

When the Spanish conquistadors began plundering the New World, the King of Spain became interested in the brilliant red color from beetles as a business opportunity. The Spaniards forced indigenous tribes to produce as much as possible, paid them little, and profited enormously.

People continued to look for ways to produce vibrant colors that would resist fading, be easy to use, and cost less. During the Industrial Revolution in England, chemists began to realize coal byproducts had the potential to be transformed into medicines.

In 1853, William Henry Perkin at the Royal College of Chemistry was assigned to a group trying to synthesize quinine for the treatment of malaria. Working in his apartment laboratory during Easter vacation, he created a brilliant purple compound by accident. His discovery started a race among chemists to find other bright, inexpensive colors, and William became rich and famous. Today, most of these dyes are made from petroleum rather than coal.

The concern about harmful coloring agents in food wasn’t addressed for some time. The U.S. passed the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, and the FDA named and numbered the popular coal tar coloring agents. However, none of them were studied until 1950 when children across the U.S. came down with diarrhea and rashes after eating Halloween candy colored with Orange Dye No. 1. Manufacturers had used excessive amounts of the dye, and it was removed from the market in 1956.

In the early 1970s, Soviet studies suggested that Red Dye No. 2 caused cancer and birth defects in rats. Public panic compelled the Mars Company to stop production of red M&Ms for many years, despite their claim about using another dye.

I was a pediatric resident in the 1970s in a big-city hospital. We saw many adults who were homeless, about two-thirds of whom were alcoholics. We referred to them as “winos” because of the cheap red wines which were popular on the streets. Many of them presented with an odd rash called erythema multiforme, considered to be an allergic reaction to medicine or an infection.

We also dispensed a lot of bright red or orange “Jell-O water” for kids with diarrhea and vomiting, and pink-colored liquid antibiotics. After drinking them for a day or so, many children developed a fine red rash or hives, which parents presumed to be an allergic reaction to the medication.

Red Dye No. 2 was pulled from the market in 1976. Soon after, the rashes disappeared. They had been caused by the food coloring, not by disease.

~ Marcia Ehinger