Understanding the History of Food Color Additives

Food colors, colorants, or color additives refer to any dye, pigment, or substance used to provide color when applied to certain food & beverage items. You can find these food coloring in powder, liquids, paste, or gels. The use of these food coloring is widespread in various industrial applications, including food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, home craft projects, and medical devices. 

These colorings may also be natural food dyes, including carotenoids and anthocyanins derived from plants or cochineal from insects. Furthermore, these food coloring could also be synthesized, including tartrazine yellow. To ensure the safety of food colorants, regulatory authorities conduct a continuous scientific review and certification process in the manufacturing of foods, beverages, and cosmetics.

EFSA and FDA are national regulatory agencies that regulate and monitor the use of food colorants, while the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives is an international reviewer. If you are a business or individual professional wondering about the history of food color additives and the usage of food color additives, you have come to the right place. 

All right! In this blog post, we will provide a basic understanding of the history of food color additives and the uses of various food colorants in industrial applications. 

So, let’s get started!

Why Food colorings are used?

Color plays an important role in making the product more appealing and attractive by imparting different colors, hues, or shades to an applied product. Plants, herb extracts, fruit peelings, and vegetables were the main ingredients to impart rich color to foods in ancient times. Pomegranates, berries, spinach, beets, red saunders (powdered wood), carrots, marigolds, saffron, indigo, turnsole, and alkanet (borage root) are a few names of food coloring dyes or food coloring agents used across the globe.

As of today, these food color additives are used worldwide for various applications in various industries, such as food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. Here are some reasons why food colors are added to food products: 

• To make foods or various food & beverage items colorful and improve business branding.
• To offset color loss due to exposure to extreme temperature, light, air, moisture, and various storage conditions.
• To make food more visually appealing, informative, attractive, and appetizing. 
• To identify products at sight, including but not limited to medicine dosages or candy flavors, and improve the palatable value of products.
• To provide color to “fun” foods and colorless items.
• To make the natural variations right in food color.
• To improve food colors that occur more naturally.

Understanding the history of food color additives

Colors derived from natural sources, which have been used for centuries, do not require any certification or don’t need to be certified by several regulatory agencies worldwide, including the US FDA. You can find a variety of food colors and pigments that are exempt, including but not limited to beet extract (purple), beta-carotene (yellow-orange), annatto extract (yellow), and grape skin extract (purple).

As a general rule, the majority of the generally poor population didn’t pay much attention to the aesthetic aspects of feudalism. The situation changed with urbanization over time, which led to the emergence of trade, notably the importation of precious spices. The first food law in Augsburg, Germany, in 1531, prohibited the burning to death of anyone who counterfeited saffron.

In addition, the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 in the United States, decreased the list of permitted synthetic colors from 700 down to just seven. The seven dyes were initially certified and approved for use in different industrial applications to ensure safety concerns and quality standards. These approved 7 food dyes 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)
• Orange 1 (FD&C Orange No. 1). 

Status of food colors or food coloring as of 2024

Colors derived from natural sources, which have been used for centuries, are not required to be certified or approved by several regulatory agencies worldwide, including the US FDA. These natural colors or pigments derived from vegetables, minerals, or animals are exempt. Annatto extract (yellow), beet extract (purple), beta-carotene (yellow to orange), and grape skin extract (purple) are a few names of food colors or food colorants. 

On the other hand, synthetic food colors or food colorings are those colorats produced to provide variant, deeper, uniform colors, and hues. These food colorants are generally cost-effective, more stable, and durable with a greater lifespan. However, synthetic food colors undergo a stringent testing process set by the US FDA to ensure the safety of these colorants in food products.

Food coloring or food color additives: What to expect?

Food coloring has advanced dramatically over the past few years with the growing technologies and techniques in the market segments, such as airbrushing and aerosol paint for edibles. 

With the new color evolvements, they have now become pastels, neons, metallics, and even sparkles. Moreover, the demand for more natural ingredients has increased in recent years, as consumers are becoming more health-conscious. 

However, the use of synthetic food dyes continues to grow to a greater level due to their capability to deliver a variety of colors, cost-effectiveness, and increased lifespan. Moreover, these colorants make the product more appealing to consumers and help companies create a strong brand presence.

Conclusion

In the bottom line, it can be concluded that food color additives have a broad history and are widely used for various purposes and applications in foods, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and home & personal care products. The role of both natural and synthetic food color additives will continue to grow in the future. Food companies are advised to use premium quality food colors or colorants to ensure safety concerns and product efficacy. 

Hridhan Chem is a leading manufacturer and exporter of synthetic food dyes and pigments in India that produces premium quality food colorants, pharmaceutical colors, cosmetic colors, and personal & home care colors following the US FDA safety measurements and quality standards. For more information on the different types of chemical dyestuff we produce at our manufacturing facility, contact our experts today.