Colourings, E100-180. These include both natural colourings and synthetic ones. Some of the ‘natural’ colours are extracted from grass, nettles and other plants, or produced by a chemical process. There is a new trend towards colours produced by fungal cells or plant cells in culture – because these too can be labelled ‘natural’, even though we would not consider eating the items from which they are derived. Such colours are being sought as a replacement for the synthetic colours known as azo-dyes, which have caused much concern. Azo-dyes include colours such as tartrazine, sunset yellow and amaranth – a complete list is given at the end of this section. Eighteen of these artificial colours are permitted in Britain – of these, eleven are banned in the United States, and six are not approved by the EEC, because they are suspected of being carcinogens. Two of the ‘natural’ colours – caramel (E150) and vegetable carbon black (E153) – are also potential carcinogens (some forms of caramel appear to be safe but not others
most of it is now made by chemical processes). Carbon black is banned in the United States. Apart from their potentially carcinogenic effect, many of the azo-dyes have been reported as causing sensitivity reactions, especially in children.
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