Avoid Food Dye:
Managing Your Diet
With Healthy Snacks

The life task to find healthy snacks which avoid food dye if you have an allergy or intolerance can be a challenge. The following is a general chart listing common names that you will see on an ingredient label signifying synthetic food dyes are present. Read down this list and as you are reading ingredient labels, if you see any of these avoid this product. It is not safe for you to consume.

This list is by no means complete. You will need to be vigilant in order to avoid food dye. This list does show the seven most widely used food dyes on today's market. It also shows the most popular food preservative that has numerous complaints about possible side effects or reactions after ingesting. If you see any other coloring you do not recognize, please contact the manufacturer before ingesting to verify its origin.

• Blue #1, brilliant blue, FCF, E133, available in the form of both dyes and lake

• Blue #2, Indigotine, E132, dyes and lake

• Green #3, Fast Green, FCF, E143 dyes and lake

• Red #40, Allura Red, AC, E129, dyes and lake

• Red #3, Erythrosine, E127, dye only

• Yellow #5, Tartrazine, E102, Dye only

• Yellow #6, Sunset Yellow, FCF, E110, dye only

Dyes - Means water- soluable dyes are generally used in beverages, dairy products, baked goods etc.

Lakes - Means non-soluable version generally used in the manufacture of hard candies, chewing gum and the hard shell on medications.

Food Preservative - sodium benzoate 211

Many parents of hyper-active children swear that after removing all traces of products from their children's diet that contain any synthetic food dyes or preservatives, the change is so obvious it is hard to imagine it is their same child.

At the current time the debate rages on between researchers, the FDA and the manufacturing community alike. Several countries overseas have already made the use of man-made dyes illegal. It is mandatory all food dyes come from an all-natural source in these countries. (To date, there is an all-natural source of dyes available for every color manufactured synthetically.) Many of your large manufacturing firms (M&M Mars, Nestle, etc.) do currently manufacture two sets of the same product; one with synthetic food dyes and one with all natural dyes.

Return to "Dye Free Candy and Snacks" from "Avoid Food Dye".