Are Food Dyes Safe or Harmful?

Food dyes have been used to artificially color foods for several decades. Primarily it's a marketing scheme used to make commercial foods more appealing to the consumer thus enticing them to buy. During processing, foods lose color and storage can also cause color loss. Dyes are used to make the foods appear fresher than they actually are. Even meats may be treated with food dye (coloring) to give an appearance of freshness.

Food dyes provide absolutely no nutritional value and some may be harmful. In fact, some of the food dyes approved by the FDA are banned in other countries. They can be na...