Food dyes are under the gun again, as an FDA committee kicked off a two-day meeting today to discuss the impacts of artificial colors used in packaged goods. What they're specifically evaluating: do synthetic food dyes, such as those found in cereal, snacks and candy, exacerbate hyperactivity disorders found in children?
This certainly isn't the first time synthetic food dyes—and not, to clarify, food colorings that are derived from minerals, plants or insects—have been called into question. Speculation about the effect of dyes on children's behavior was first broached by Dr. Benjamin Feingold in the 1970s. Since then, government panels have regularly studied the matter (read more about the FDA's studies here), as concern—and use of dyes—grew, each time finding some correlation between dye and behavior, but coming up short on research and comprehensive data.
This latest study is the result of a 2008 petition by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which seeks to ban the use of eight synthetic food dyes, including Yellow 5, Blue 1 and Red 40, as well as provide a warning on dyed food (until the dyes are cleared from the food manufacturing process) and updating all public literature about the link between synthetic dyes and hyperactivity and learning disabilities in children.
It's unsure what the outcome of this latest meeting will be—New warnings? A call for more research?—but it's a timely conversation to be had, to say the least.
What do you think? Are you concerned about your child consuming dyed foods?