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Animal By-Products in Food Dye

By Sean Gregory

Bugs!!!

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What Animals/Animal By-Products are in Food Dye?

There are a plethora of different food dyes and many of them contain animal products of some sort
Yellow 5 (which is in Mountain Dew and many cereals) contain products from pork
Carmine, is used in many foods, and is made from crushed up beetles

Who Invented Food Dye?

In 1856, William Henry Perkin created the first food coloring, called mauve
At first, they were made from coal by-products and it was later discovered that they had many dangerous ingredients
Lead, Arsenic, and Mercury were being added which are very toxic ingredients
This led to the “Food and Drugs Act”, which made sure no poisonous colors were used.

Carmine and Red Dyes

In basically every red food you can eat, you'll find a red dye somewhere in the ingredients list
Carmine or carminic acid, is the base of most of these dyes, and are made from crushed up beetles called cochineal
Red 40 and Red 2, though are made from coal or petroleum products

Red 40 and Red 2

Most red dyes that are made from carmine, aren't harmful to humans unless they are allergic to it
Red 40 and 2 though, are made from coal and petroleum by-products, and have been proven way more dangerous than dyes made from animals
Red 2 was an early dye that was in a lot of product during the 20th century, but it was banned in 1976 by the FDA in the US, because it was proved to cause cancer
Many studies show that Red 40 causes cancer, yet, it's used in many foods, like candy and chips, just to make the food look appealing

Side Effects of Red 40 and 2

How Vegans View Them?

True vegans are very careful about what foods they are consuming to make sure no animals are in them, yet they still consume foods with animals in them and they don't even know
Drinks like mountain dew, have pork in them, ketchup, and even cherries contain carmine from crushed bugs and they might not even know it
Companies like starbucks, have been pressured to stop using carmine because it contains animals, and stopped using it in 2012
Yet, Starbucks still uses red 40, which is a proven carcinogen and is significantly worse for you than carmine

Worst Food Dyes

Blue #1 (Brilliant Blue): Found in baked goods, beverages (soda or sports), dessert powders, candy, cereal, drugs, and chewing gum. ...
Blue #2 (Indigo Carmine)
Green #3 (Fast Green)
Red #3 (Erythrosine)
Red #40 (Allura Red)
Yellow #5 (Tartrazine)
Yellow #6 (Sunset Yellow)
Red #2 (Amaranth)

Video

Sources

The End!!!