CSPI Report Calls for FDA Action on Food Dyes
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has published a
report criticizing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) lack
of action on food dyes. Titled Seeing Red: Time for Action on Food Dyes,
the report points to studies allegedly linking food-dye consumption to
behavioral issues in children—particularly those diagnosed with Attention
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)—concluding that
FDA “has failed to protect or even inform consumers of the risks
of dyes to children.”
“We estimate that over half a million children in the United States suffer
adverse behavioral reactions after ingesting food dyes, with an estimated
cost exceeding $5 billion per year, using information cited by the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a recent meta-analysis
sponsored by an arm of the food industry,” states CSPI. “A study of food
labels in one supermarket found that more than 90 percent of child
oriented candies, fruit-flavored snacks, and drink mixes and powders are
artificially colored.”
Claiming that children’s exposure to food dyes is higher than initially
reported, CSPI asks FDA to require warning labels on products
containing food dyes while the agency works to “revoke approvals for all
food dyes.” In particular, the consumer group opines that FDA erroneously
directed the Food Advisory Committee (FAC) in a 2011 meeting to
consider whether the available evidence established a causal relationship
between food dyes and hyperactivity—“a difficult scientific question to
answer, and one that is unnecessary, given the requirement that dyes
meet the federal safety standard for color additives.”
“Had FDA asked the committee to vote on whether food dyes were safe
under the law—i.e., if there were ‘convincing evidence that establishes,
with reasonable certainty, that no harm will result’ from food dyes—it
seems likely that the FAC would have voted no,” argues CSPI. “Importantly,
the FDA also asked the FAC to assess whether dyes certified in the
United States affect children in the general population, but did not ask
whether dyes affect sensitive subpopulations of children, such as those
with behavioral problems or dietary sensitivities, which has been the
focus of almost all of the research.”
Issue 591
