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Consumer Group Presses for Ban on Food Dye

Claims link to hyperactivity, behavior problems in children

June 5, 2008

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In a formal petition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Center for Science in the Public Interest is asking that eight widely-used food dyes be banned from the food supply. The consumer group says the substances are linked to hyperactivity and behavior problems in children.

The food colorings in questions, according to CSPI, are Yellow 5, Red 40, Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Orange B, Red 3, and Yellow 6. The group says several are currently being phased out in the UK.

CSPI points to work done in the 1970s by Dr. Ben Feingold, a San Francisco allergist, who reported that his patients improved when their diets were changed to remove food dye.

CSPI says numerous controlled studies conducted over the next three decades in the United States, Europe, and Australia proved that some children's behavior is worsened by artificial dyes, but the government did nothing to discourage their use and food manufacturers greatly increased their reliance on them.

"We spent years trying to figure out the cause of our son's behavioral problems," said Judy Mann, of Silver Spring, Md. "For a long time, we thought the culprit was sugar. But when we started carefully monitoring everything he ate we were able to see that artificial dyes and preservatives were the problem. Since eliminating them the change has been positively stunning."

CSPI Executive Director Dr. Michael Jacobson was critical of both food manufacturers and federal regulators for failing to act on the wide body of research done on food colorings.

"I was disappointed, but not surprised, that the Grocery Manufacturers of America would so reflexively ignore the science related to food dyes and behavior and assert that dyes are perfectly safe," Jacobson said. "It is far more distressing that a spokesperson for the Food and Drug Administration, a public health agency, would assume a similar ostrich-like stance without reading the numerous studies that found that dyes impair children's behavior."

CSPI's petition asks the FDA to require a warning label on foods with artificial dyes while it mulls CSPI's request to ban the dyes outright. CSPI also wants the FDA to correct the information it presents to parents on its web site about the impact of artificial food dyes on behavior.

CSPI lists 19 psychiatrists, toxicologists, and pediatricians who co-signed a letter urging members of Congress to hold hearings on artificial food dyes and behavior, and to fund an Institute of Medicine research project on the issue.

Those doctors include L. Eugene Arnold, professor emeritus of psychiatry at Ohio State University; Bernard Weiss, professor of environmental medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry; and Stanley Greenspan, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at George Washington University Medical School.

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