FD&C Red Number 40 Food is a staple in our everyday lives, along with water it is one of the things we literally cannot live without. As an American, it is hard to eat a nutritious diet with all the fast food options and processed foods right at our fingertips. However, one aspect of our food that is of big concern for some individuals are artificial color additives. If you pick up your favorite cereal, beverage, or even your mouthwash and start to read the ingredients list you may see some of the colors I am referring to, such as Blue 1, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Red 40, etc. These artificial color additives are in numerous products throughout your house, even more than you probably realize. You may think nothing of this, but a lot of these artificial
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On the FDA website it states that “FDA evaluates safety data to ensure that a color additive is safe for its intended purposes. Color additives that FDA has found to cause cancer in animals or humans may not be used in FDA-regulated products marketed in the United States”. Along with being evaluated for safety the color additives are placed into one of two categories, certifiable or exempt. Certifiable colors are typically derived from petroleum, and as I stated earlier are man-made. Exempt colors are also artificial colors that are derived from plants, animals, or mineral sources. Certifiable colors must submit a sample for testing, and if they are approved they are given a lot number. The color additive is then given a three part name consisting of FD&C, D&C, or Ext. D&C then a color, and then a number. Such as the dye we will be focusing on FD&C Red Number 40. FD&C stands for Food, Drug, and Cosmetics, meaning that is what that specific dye is allowed to be used in. D&C stands for drugs and cosmetics, and Ext. D&C means that the color can only be used in external drugs and …show more content…
Most of them followed the same formatting, introducing the health hazards of Red 40 in an almost scare tactic way, then going on to inform you of where artificial food dyes are banned. The media sources also all liked to place blame on the FDA, almost to a degrading level. The media sources also all compared foods in the U.S to the same foods in other countries, stating that they were made with natural colors instead of artificial colors. The one difference from my media sources were that the BBC news article did not go into the history of food dyes creation, but rather gave information about what petroleum is and what other products it is used to
On the FDA website it states that “FDA evaluates safety data to ensure that a color additive is safe for its intended purposes. Color additives that FDA has found to cause cancer in animals or humans may not be used in FDA-regulated products marketed in the United States”. Along with being evaluated for safety the color additives are placed into one of two categories, certifiable or exempt. Certifiable colors are typically derived from petroleum, and as I stated earlier are man-made. Exempt colors are also artificial colors that are derived from plants, animals, or mineral sources. Certifiable colors must submit a sample for testing, and if they are approved they are given a lot number. The color additive is then given a three part name consisting of FD&C, D&C, or Ext. D&C then a color, and then a number. Such as the dye we will be focusing on FD&C Red Number 40. FD&C stands for Food, Drug, and Cosmetics, meaning that is what that specific dye is allowed to be used in. D&C stands for drugs and cosmetics, and Ext. D&C means that the color can only be used in external drugs and …show more content…
Most of them followed the same formatting, introducing the health hazards of Red 40 in an almost scare tactic way, then going on to inform you of where artificial food dyes are banned. The media sources also all liked to place blame on the FDA, almost to a degrading level. The media sources also all compared foods in the U.S to the same foods in other countries, stating that they were made with natural colors instead of artificial colors. The one difference from my media sources were that the BBC news article did not go into the history of food dyes creation, but rather gave information about what petroleum is and what other products it is used to