FD&C Coloring Information

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• FDA - Color Additives Fact Sheet - What the FDA says about artificial colorings.

• TITLE 21: Electronic Code of Federal Regulation, Color Additives Subject to Certfication - Prettier, easier to read format; browse them by clicking on "Browse Next" etc.

• TITLE 21: Plain Text Format: FDA Listing of Color Additives, details of requirements for certification - amounts of contaminants allowed
  • FD&C Yellow #5, Code of Federal Regulations - Note that only 1 part per BILLION of benzidine is allowed, while 10 parts per million of lead, 3 parts per million of arsenic, and 1 part per million of mercury are allowed.

• FDA: Summary of Color Additives Listed for Use in the United States - 2007

• FDA - Color Additives for Medical Devices

• How much do we use? - FDA - Color Certification Reports

• Report on Carcinogens
  • Dyes That Metabolize to Benzidine
  • Benzidine - note only 1 ppb (1 ng/g) is allowed by Code of Federal Regulations)
    • Lancaster & Lawrence study, 1999, finding 5 to 270 ng/g of benzidine in tartrazine
    • Peiperl, Prival, & Bell, 1995, finding that half the samples (34 of 67) tested had more than 10 ng/g of benzidine, ranging from 11 to 104 ng/g, except for one sample containing 941 ng/g.
    • Peiperl, Prival, & Bell, 1993, finding that 25 of 53 samples tested had 7 to 83 ng/g of benzidine
  • Doesn't it make you wonder how much Benzidine is actually in that yellow piece of candy you are about to eat?

• Encyclopaedia Britannica
  
  • History of Natural & Synthetic Dyes
  • Sulfonamide
  • Sulfonamide drugs - made from Prontosil, a red dye

• Other General Information Resources about Colorings:
  • The American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Drugs in Pediatrics in October 1985
    
  • E Is For Additives
    
  • Health Letter by Public Citizen Health Research Group, March/April 1985
  • Complete listing of E-Numbers from Northern Allergy Center, Australia.
  
  
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