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Look closely at the ingredients listed on the back of your M&Ms package and you're sure to see Blue No. 2 there. Those versed in the chemistry of colorants will realize that's the same chemical that's in your blue jeans: indigotine.
We now know that natural red dye comes from bugs, but what's the story behind all the blue food we put into our mouths?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved seven artificial colorings for food, including two blues: Blue No. 1 and Blue No. 2—which are often combined in food products like M&Ms.
Blue No. 1 is called "brilliant blue" and, as is typical of modern dyes, was originally derived from coal tar, although most manufacturers now make it from an oil base. Blue No. 2, or "indigotine," on the other hand, is a synthetic version of the plant-based indigo that has a long history as a textile dye.
Although toxicology studies have demonstrated that both of these dyes are relatively safe, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and other advocacy organizations have long argued that these and other artificial colorings may be linked to attention deficit disorder (ADD). In September 2007, a study in the U.K. medical journal The Lancet came to a similar conclusion, leading the European Parliament last July to order such products to carry a label warning consumers of the potential risk. Such concerns are behind the decision by the Nestlé–Rowntree candy company in England to pull its blue Smarties—an M&M look-alike—from shelves in 2005. In February 2008, the company brought them back, using spirulina, a bluish mixture of two species of cyanobacteria, in lieu of the chemicals.
To find out more about the origins of blue food colorants used today, we spoke with Hamish McNab, a chemist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland who specializes in the heterocyclic compounds used to produce a range of dyes.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
What are the natural sources of blue dye?
Indigo, which comes from the indigo plant (Indigofera), has been used for probably at least 4,000 years. There is a written recipe for dying wool with indigo on a Babylonian cuneiform tablet dated to the seventh century B.C. There is evidence that it was used in neolithic Europe and in pharaonic Egypt. It also comes from the woad plant (Isatis tinctoria), and was used by the Celts in Scotland to dye their faces.
If you speak to experts in the dying industry, they will tell you indigo is not colorfast: It washes out, fades rather rapidly—more rapidly than a designed synthetic dye. For the past 30 or 40 years faded jeans have been the uniform of students, and when I lecture I can be sure that at least half out of 100 undergraduates will be wearing indigo.
Indigo appears to be licensed for use as a food dye in the U.S., but most [food dyes] are synthetic and of broadly similar chemical constitution to those used as textile dyes.
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14 Comments
Add CommentWhy do we NEED to color our food at all?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEven better why do they color dog treats and dog food? Food for an animal that can't see color.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisactually, they can see color just not as vividly as you and I
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisbut i agree, the use of coloring is a litle over done on things like that
but some things would look pretty different without color like Pepsi or Coke would be green
What about Molybdenum Blue?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe meaning is clear, but you guys might want to correct the misspelling of "dyeing" as "dying" throughout. While the Blue 1 and 2 dyeing industry may be dying, Yellow 5, 6 and Red 40 and the gang are probably doing just fine. Forgive the "dyeatribe."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe dont know how to combine color's food nature. ie. meat, lettucce, tomatoes and rice! Beautiful colors!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe berry color's are also beautiful, banana, apples
The nature give us all the colors we need, is our job to join them with art
Is our mission to transmit to our children the importance of drinking pure water and eating natural food without dyes.
Manufacturers put dyes in pet food because it increases sales. Obviously since pets aren't the ones putting down the plastic, it's the owners that they expect to influence this way.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA little bit of Internet research saved me from making the claim that baby food manufacturers put salt in their product to make it appeal to taste testing adults, since babies can't yet taste salt. Turns out that they don't, because it is harmful to babies' kidneys.
Nice point...:) but maybe to attract the humans yo buy it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA San Francisco physician documented that kids with ADHD were successfully treated by simply NOT feeding them dyed food.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are so many poisonous chemicals in our food--Parkinson's is now connected to pesticides. Well, guess what has pesticides in it--all your veggis and fruit unless you buy organic.
Actually, the 'green cola' thing is a myth. Snopes.com is your friend. Regardless, we'd have a lot of adjusting to do if all our food was uncolored. I'm sure some of it wouldn't be a tasty-looking color...hence the need for the artificail coloring.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisColor is Everything.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo artificials allowed
Bright Color Sells! if you don't like the inhanced colorents don't buy them. Read the label, that's what it's for.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIm highly allergic to blue dye any even the natural one that is synthetic. It is so hard to eat anything on the market today for me i think i have a harder time with this allergy than any others.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think it is amazing that American made blue jeans are also part of my m&ms. I wish that there were a stronger movement toward health and healthy living. I'm not sure how I will respond next time I eat an m&m.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://Bulletbluesca.com