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Substance used to color food or drink

Food coloring, or color additive, is any dye, pigment, or substance that imparts color when it is added to food or drink. They can be supplied as liquids, powders, gels, or pastes. Food coloring is used in both commercial food production and domestic cooking. Food colorants are also used in a variety of non food applications, including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, home craft projects, and medical devices. Colorings may be natural (e. g. anthocyanins, cochineal) or artificial/synthetic (e. g. tartrazine yellow).

People associate certain colors with certain flavors, and the color of food can influence the perceived flavor in anything from candy to wine. Sometimes, the aim is to simulate a color that is perceived by the consumer as natural, such as adding red coloring to glacé cherries (which would otherwise be beige), but sometimes it is for effect, like the green ketchup that Heinz launched in 2000. Color additives are used in foods for many reasons including: During the Middle Ages, the economy in the European countries was based on agriculture, and the peasants were accustomed to producing their own food locally or trading within the village communities. Under feudalism, aesthetic aspects were not considered, at least not by the vast majority of the generally very poor population. This situation changed with urbanization at the beginning of the Modern Age, when trade emerged—especially the import of precious spices and colors. One of the first food laws, created in Augsburg, Germany, in 1531, concerned spices or colorants and required saffron counterfeiters to be burned to death.

With the onset of the industrial revolution, people became dependent on foods produced by others. Red lead (Pb3O4) and vermillion (HgS) were routinely used to color cheese and confectionery. Copper arsenite (CuHAsO3) was used to recolor used tea leaves for resale. It also caused two deaths when used to color a dessert in 1860. Sellers at the time offered more than 80 artificial coloring agents, some invented for dyeing textiles, not foods. Many color additives had never been tested for toxicity or other adverse effects. Historical records show that injuries, even deaths, resulted from tainted colorants. In 1851, about 200 people were poisoned in England, 17 of them fatally, directly as a result of eating adulterated lozenges. Originally, these were dubbed 'coal tar' colors because the starting materials were obtained from bituminous coal. Synthetic dyes are often less costly and technically superior to natural dyes.

While naturally derived colors, most of which have been used traditionally for centuries, are not required to be certified by a number of regulatory bodies throughout the world (including the U. S. FDA), they may require approval in some countries. Food colorings are tested for safety by various bodies around the world, and sometimes different bodies have different views on food color safety. Artificial food additives usually require certification everywhere.

Concerns over food safety led to numerous regulations throughout the world. German food regulations released in 1882 stipulated the exclusion of dangerous "minerals" such as arsenic, copper, chromium, lead, mercury, and zinc, which were frequently used as ingredients in colorants. In contrast to today's regulatory guidelines, these first laws followed the principle of a negative listing (substances not allowed for use); they were already driven by the main principles of today's food regulations all over the world, since all of these regulations follow the same goal: the protection of consumers from toxic substances and from fraud. The seven dyes initially approved were Ponceau 3R (FD&C Red No. 1), amaranth (FD&C Red No. 2), erythrosine (FD&C Red No. 3), indigotine (FD&C Blue No. 2), light green SF (FD&C Green No. 2), naphthol yellow 1 (FD&C Yellow No. 1), and orange 1 (FD&C Orange No. 1). Even with updated food laws, adulteration continued for many years. In the 20th century, improved chemical analysis and testing led to the replacement of the negative lists by positive listings. Positive lists consist of substances allowed to be used for the production and the improvement of foods. Most prevailing legislations are based on positive listing. This directive did not list which food products the colorants could or could not be used in. At that time, each member state could designate where certain colors could and could not be used. In Germany, for example, quinoline yellow was allowed in puddings and desserts, but tartrazine was not. The reverse was true in France.

A comparison of food color regulations in the EU and the US was published in 2017.