A Rainbow of Food Dye

Many foods have some kind of food coloring in them. Click each picture to reveal what gives each food its color.

Red lollipops

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Some red candies use a food coloring called E120. It’s also called carmine or cochineal extract. It’s made from bugs! Harvesters grind up cochineal insects. They extract carminic acid, which creates the red color. The Aztecs and Mayans first harvested these bugs. The vibrant red pigment is also used to dye cloth.

Many sodas contain synthetic (man-made) dyes. These soft drinks use a synthetic dye called Yellow 5. Manufacturers often add dyes to give customers an idea of what the drink will taste like. (For example: red for berries; yellow for citrus.) Some scientific studies suggest that Yellow 5 (and other synthetic dyes) might make children hyperactive. But most scientists say there’s not yet enough evidence to say one way or another.

Yellow 5

Mountain Dew 

chlorophyllin

Pistachio ice cream

When pistachios are ground up, the paste is a light brown color. But makers of pistachio ice cream usually color their product green. That’s what customers expect their ice cream to look like. Most ice cream makers use chlorophyllin. That comes from chlorophyll—the pigment that gives plants their green color and helps them get energy from the Sun.

indigo carmine

Blueberry toaster pastries

That purpley-blue color isn’t just from blueberries. Many brands also use Blue 1. That’s another synthetic dye. Blue is a color that doesn’t happen a whole lot in nature. And most natural blue dyes aren’t as vibrant as this synthetic. Another blue food dye is Blue 2 or indigo carmine. Like the other synthetic dyes, there’s concern that these could be harmful to human health. 

Tomato soup

Where does that red color come from? Usually, it’s just tomatoes! Some canned soups may use betanin to boost the vibrancy. That coloring comes from beets.

Cheddar cheese

Cheddar cheese is naturally an off-white color. But in the 17th century, people started dying it orange. Why? In England, cheddar made with local cows’ milk often had an orange tint. That came from the beta-carotene in the grass the cows ate. Many cheesemakers started skimming off the cream to sell it separately. But that took most of the coloring out of the cheese. So the          cheesemakers added coloring to hide that.              Plus, the coloring made every batch of                 cheese look the same.                   These days, most                   cheddar is colored with                   annatto. That comes                 from the seeds of the                tropical achiote tree.

This breakfast treat includes Red 40. That is— you guessed it—another synthetic food coloring. It’s in many processed foods, cosmetics, and even medicine. Red 3 was recently banned in the United States. But Red 40 is still permitted. 

Froot Loops 

Red 40