Food coloring, or color additive, is any dye, pigment, or substance that imparts color when it is added to food or drink. They come in many forms consisting of liquids, powders, gels, and pastes. Food coloring is used in both commercial food production and domestic cooking. Food colorants are also used in a variety of non-food applications, including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, home craft projects, and medical devices.
People associate certain colors with certain flavors, and the color of food can influence the perceived flavor in anything from candy to wine. Sometimes, the aim is to simulate a color that is perceived by the consumer as natural, such as adding red coloring to glacé cherries (which would otherwise be beige), but sometimes it is for effect, like the green ketchup that Heinz launched in 2000. Color additives are used in foods for many reasons including:
To make food more attractive, appealing, appetizing, and informative
Offset color loss due to exposure to light, air, temperature extremes, moisture and storage conditions
Correct natural variations in color
Enhance colors that occur naturally
Provide color to colorless and "fun" foods
Allow consumers to identify products on sight, like candy flavors or medicine dosages
While naturally derived colors are not required to be certified by a number of regulatory bodies throughout the world (including the U.S. FDA), they still need to be approved for use in the respective country. Food colorings are tested for safety by various bodies around the world and sometimes different bodies have different views on food color safety.
Food in Canada cannot be sold with more than:
300 ppm of dyes including allura red, amaranth, erythrosine, indigotine, sunset yellow FCF or tartrazine or any combination of these unless specified
100 ppm of fast green FCF or brilliant blue FCF or any combination of these
300 ppm of allura red, amaranth, erythrosine, indigotine, sunset yellow FCF or tartrazine and fast green FCF or brilliant blue FCF combined
150 ppm of ponceau SX dye.