CSPI Urges FDA to Mandate Warning Labels on Foods Containing Synthetic Food Coloring

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has called on
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require labeling on
foods containing synthetic food dyes such as FD&C Green 3 and FD&C
Blue 2. CSPI’s latest move follows its January 2016 publication of a
report critical of FDA’s inattention to food dyes and pointing to studies
allegedly linking food-dye consumption to behavioral issues in children,
particularly those with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
The health advocacy group’s proposed labeling would state: “WARNING:
This food contains synthetic food colorings that may impair the behavior
of some children.”

“As long as dyes are permitted, only a warning label will provide
consumers with the appropriate information to enable them to make
the association between foods containing those dyes and their children’s
behavioral symptoms,” CSPI said in its March 15, 2016, letter to FDA.
“The FDA has mandated such labeling in the past on several occasions.
For the same reason, labeling is necessary in the context of food dyes.”
Previous examples of FDA-mandated warnings cited by CSPI include
those required on unpasteurized juices and products containing olestra
and aspartame.

“If the FDA is willing to place a label on products containing aspartame
to protect (from a malady that we recognize may be far more severe than
symptoms of ADHD) a vulnerable subpopulation of less than 10,000, the
agency should also require a products containing food dyes that affect
over half a million children.”

CSPI cites costs of $3.5 billion to more than $5 billion to treat children
and adolescents with ADHD linked to ingestion of food dyes. See CSPI
News Release, March 15, 2016