While having all those meals day after day, we may well be feeding ourselves harmful chemicals
It starts when you get up in the morning. You snatch a bar of soap and scrub your face. That’s likely your first dab into the palette of added tints and hues that will colour much of your day.
Most of us hardly notice them, but colour additives surround us. They’re in shampoos, in shaving creams, toothpaste, contact lens, everything. At breakfast, the colours keep coming. Juice, cereal, pastry, coffee creamer, vitamins — all are likely to have added colours. With this rainbow hodgepodge bombarding us daily, it’s only natural that consumers might wonder: Just how safe are all these colours?
Colour additives have long been a part of human culture. Archaeologists date cosmetic colours as far back as 5000BC. Ancient Egyptians used drugs colourants while historians say food colours likely emerged around 1500BC. Through the years, colour additives typically came from substances found in nature, such as turmeric, paprika and saffron. But as the 20th century approached, new kinds of colours appeared that offered marketers wider colouring possibilities. These colours, many whipped up in the chemist’s lab, also created a range of safety problems.
In the late 1800s, some manufacturers coloured products with potentially poisonous minerals and metal-based compounds. Toxic chemicals tinted certain candies and pickles, while other colour additives contained arsenic or similar poisons. Historical records show that injuries, even deaths, resulted from tainted colourants. Food producers also deceived customers by employing colour additives to mask poor product quality or spoiled stock.
Sellers at the time offered more than 80 artificial colouring agents, some intended for dyeing textiles, not foods. Many colour additives had never been tested for toxicity or other adverse effects.
At the start of the 20th century, bulk of the chemically synthesized colours were derived from aniline, a petroleum product that in pure form is toxic. Originally, these were dubbed “coal-tar” colours because the starting materials were obtained from bituminous coal. These formulations are still used today, though safely for most certifiable colour additives.
Though colours from plants, animals and mineral sources — at one time the only colouring agents available — remained in use early in this century, manufacturers had strong economic incentives to phase them out. Chemically synthesized colours were simply easier to produce, less expensive and superior in colouring properties. Only tiny amounts were needed. They blended nicely and didn’t impart unwanted flavours to foods. But as their use grew, so did safety concerns. However, it was not until the passage of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, by the US Congress for its market, that the FDA’s mandate include the full range of colour designations that consumers there can still read on product packages: “FD&C” (permitted in food, drugs and cosmetic); “D&C” (for use in drugs and cosmetics) and “Ext.D&C” (colours for external-use drug and cosmetics).
The letter and number combinations — FD&C Blue No.1 or D&C Red No.17 — make it easy to distinguish colours used in food, drugs or cosmetics from dyes made for textiles and other uses. Only FDA certified colour additives can carry these special designations.
The law also created a listing of colour ‘lakes’. These water-insoluble forms of certain approved colours are used in coated tablets, cookie fillings, candies and other products in which colour bleeding could make a mess or otherwise cause problems.
Though the 1938 law did much to bring the use of colour under strict control in the US, nagging questions lingered about tolerance levels for colour additives. That was taken care of in 1960 that broadened FDA’s scope and allowed the agency to set limits on how much colour could be safely added to products.
From the original 1960 catalogue of about 200 provisionally listed colours, which included straight colours and lakes, only lakes of some colours remain on the provisional list. Industry withdrew or FDA banned many, while the rest became permanently listed and are still used. Some of these colours, derived from coal or petroleum sources, are subject to certification and carry the F,D or C prefix. Others, exempt from certification, are pigments and colours derived from plant, animal and mineral sources. They are found in a myriad of products — from the caramel that tints cola drinks to the orange annatto that gives colour to cheese. Last fiscal year, the FDA certified over 11.5 million pounds of colour additives. Of all those colours straight dye FD&C Red No. 40 is by far the most popular. Manufacturers use this orange-red colour in all sorts of gelatins, beverages, dairy products and condiments.
Numerous synthetic food colourings were banned after twenty years on the market, when it was discovered that they were found to be carcinogenic. However, the FDA stated that so few people had a serious problem with tartrazine, that they allowed it to continue to be used. However, many synthetic food additives are banned in France, United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium.
Tartrazine, also known as yellow food colouring No5, which is used not only to colour foods but also to preserve other colours, was causing hyperactivity in children. Tartrazine is a derivative of coal tar, yes coal tar. Tartrazine is added in many foods (as well as other products). Here’s a partial list:
• Most of the dark yellow cheeses.
• Some ice cream.
• Many dry cereals.
• Some soft drinks.
• Most powdered fruit drinks.
• Many so-called fruit drinks.
• Many of the canned goods and most dehydrated powdered soups.
• Most pickles, salad dressings and mayonnaise.
• The skins of some oranges and papayas.
• All jelly powders which we have checked.
• Some preserved cherries.
• Some cake mixes and icings.
• Many in-store baked goods.
• The coating on slow release pills, such as birth control pills (as well as others).
• Breath mints of all kinds.
• Most pet food.
• Some vitamins.
• Most packaged macaroni and cheese.
• Some tooth pastes.
I might add here, that because one finds a product to be tartrazine free one time, doesn’t mean that the next time one goes to buy it, that it’s still okay. Tartrazine is being added to more and more products ail the time. We have to be especially vary of food served by airlines. Many of the little packages of salad dressing, spreads, muffins, etc. have no ingredient labels and we’ve had surprises.
BHT is the abbreviation for butylated hydroxytoluene, and the ingredients used in the manufacture was cresol, which is a coal tar derivative. Evidently what they do is spray the inside packaging material with BHT to preserve the contents. By the way, BHT is prohibited in England.
Synthetic vanilla that is now being made from petrochemical raw materials. Prior to this, it was made from lignin-containing waste liquor obtained from acid sulfite pulping of wood, which sounds just about as appetizing.
MSG is a synthetic derivative of amino acids. I found that raw tongue and hives, along with headaches, etc. were common adverse effects of this MSG. Did you know that monosodium glutamate is known by more than forty different names and numbers?
Following always contain MSG: potassium glutamate, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, hydrolyzed protein, hydrolyzed plant protein, hydrolyzed oat flour — in fact, hydrolyzed anything, as well as plant protein extract, sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate, yeast extract, textured protein and autolyzed yeast.
Some food processors are adding MSG to hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) and not labelling it as containing MSG. According to Dr Blaylock, author of Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, HVP poses an even greater threat than MSG. He describes the manufacturing process of HVP (sometimes referred to as hydrolyzed plant protein) in this way: the major ingredients are “junk” vegetables, unfit for sale that have high amounts of naturally occurring glutamates.
Aspartame A chemical is an artificial sweetener, is known to be poisonous even in modest amounts. It can cause brain damage, blindness, inflammation of the pancreas and heart muscles.
Calcium Propionate claims that are linked between the food preservative, calcium propionate and behavioural problems in children.
Carbamate measurable detrimental effects on the nervous, immune and endocrine (hormone) systems.
FD&C Green No.3 Fast Green Known to cause bladder tumours.
Food colourings can cause anaphylactic shock in sensitive individuals.
Gentian Violet CI Basic Violet No.3 Can cause contact dermatitis.
Hydrolyzed Protein Fatty acids contain higher parameters for heart disease. Known to cause Celiac Disease (also known as celiac sprue or gluten-sensitive enteropathy) is a chronic disease in which malabsorption of nutrients is caused by a characteristic lesion of the small intestine mucosa.
Pectin Large quantities may cause temporary flatulence or intestinal discomfort.
Sorbitol Can cause gastric disturbance.
Sulfites The symptom most reported is difficulty breathing. Other problems range from stomach ache to hives to anaphylactic shock.
Thiamine Adverse effects in high doses are headache, irritability, rapid pulse, trembling and weakness.
Potassium Bromate, large quantities can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and pain.
Sodium aluminium silicate Known to cause placental problems in pregnancy and has been linked to Alzheimer’s.
Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), some people report symptoms such as dizziness, flushing, nausea and a feeling of tightness or pressure in the upper part of the body after eating food containing MSG.
There are many more additives in our food sources. You must be aware of these and seek more information to safe guard your own health.
In Pakistan, there is no such regulatory body like the FDA in USA, whose work is constantly under scrutiny. Just imagine what might be the state of affairs in our homeland?
While having all those meals day after day, we may well be feeding ourselves harmful chemicals 
