FDA Panel Rejects Food Dye Warning Labels
The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Food Advisory Committee has
reportedly rejected a proposal to require warning labels for artificial food
dyes, thereby confirming its earlier position that “a causal relationship
between exposure to color additives and hyperactivity in children in the
general population has not been established.”
The committee addressed the issue at a March 30-31, 2011, meeting, where
it heard testimony from experts, consumers and advocacy groups like the
Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which has long urged FDA to
follow Europe’s example in encouraging companies to switch to non-synthetic
alternatives. “It is to the great shame of many U.S.-based food companies that
they are marketing safer, naturally colored products in Europe but not the
United States,” opined CSPI Executive Director Michael Jacobson in a March
30, 2011, statement. See The New York Times, March 29, 2011; NPR, March 30,
2011.
In particular, the advisory panel considered a study commissioned by the U.K. Food Standards Agency that purportedly showed evidence of a link between some popular color additives and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. Although the research bolstered the European Union’s decision to require warning labels on certain foods, the FDA committee ultimately found that current data and clinical trials suggest that food coloring may aggravate ADHD in “susceptible children” but that the behavioral effects “appear to be due to a unique intolerance to these substances and not to any inherent neurotoxic properties.” The panel concurred with a 1982 National Institutes of Health report concluding that “elimination diets should not be used universally to treat childhood hyperactivity,” and recommended further studies “to address any questions that have been raised as to whether, and under what conditions, the continued use of these certified color additives is safe.” See Law360, March 31, 2011; UPI, April 1, 2011.
