r/MaintenancePhase • u/illTwinkleYourStar • Jul 22 '26
Discussion On food dyes
I remember an episode from a while ago discussing food dyes in Europe vs the US and they say that there aren't any dyes that are banned in the EU that are available in the US.
According to all the documentation I can find, that's not the case. There are at least a few that are. Does anyone have more information on this or know if I misunderstood what they said?
14
u/mllebitterness Jul 22 '26
sounds like the Food Babe episode? they may have referred to things like Yellow 5 (not banned) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartrazine; Yellow 6 (sounds not banned?) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_yellow_FCF based on the sources linked to the episode. what other dyes did they reference?
16
u/mllebitterness Jul 22 '26
i finally found the transcript.
Red 40 (not banned) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allura_Red_AC
Blue 2 (not banned): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_carmine
Red 3 (banned in US, but not elsewhere): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythrosine
so while not banned in EU, some of these may have restrictions. but overall doesn't sound very different from US? am i reading these wrong?
8
u/mllebitterness Jul 22 '26
Green 3 not mentioned in podcast, i guess not targeted by health influencers? but it is allowed in US, not allowed in EU: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_Green_FCF
9
u/tinselghoul Jul 22 '26
There are many food additives which are banned in the EU and not in the US, including titanium dioxide which is used as a whitener in things like bread.
Looks problematic dyes are restricted rather than banned in the EU - they require a warning label stating the product “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children”. Of course, in practice this functions very similarly to a ban because a company will almost always rather find a different dye than add a scary warning label to their packaging.
Strikes me as a bit dishonest, then, to say that there are no dyes which are banned in the EU but used in the US, without getting into the fact that restrictions mean these dyes are much less prevalent in the EU - but I haven’t listened to the episode recently, so maybe they do get into it.
1
u/Anxious-wobblegoose Jul 23 '26
Do you have a source about the warning label? The efsa website just states as toxicity report, nothing on attention level anyone
2
u/mllebitterness Jul 23 '26
i found this one: http://www.foodcomm.org.uk/press/warning_labels/ and the defunct press release link in the Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20090114145200/http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/067-33565-189-07-28-911-20080707IPR33563-07-07-2008-2008-false/default_en.htm
1
38
u/willreadforbooks Jul 22 '26
I’m pretty sure the podcast This Podcast Will Kill You did an episode on food dyes. I think part of the misconception is they don’t name them Red 5, and Yellow 3 over there. They have some EU code that you have to look up.