Color is one of the most important factors influencing a consumer’s decision to buy food. Preserving a food’s existing color or adding color to make it more appealing are common practices in the food industry.
Detailed information on the protection of color is given under the title of preservative food additives (see Preservative Food Additives). For this purpose, some preservative food additives are used.
Coloring food is a different matter from preserving color. Food colorants are used for coloring foods in the food industry.
Some foods may not offer a very attractive appearance to the consumer in their natural state. The most obvious example of this situation is lemon-based foods. Whether it is lemonade or lemon ice cream, they do not have the distinctive bright yellow color of lemons in their natural state.
The consumer may be mistaken that these products do not contain lemon or contain very little lemon. Consumers can expect these foods to be bright yellow like lemons.
The manufacturer may therefore ask, “Why don’t we color these products to make them more yellow?” A coloring additive is then added to the natural product to meet consumers’ expectations and make it more appealing.
A similar situation is more evident in butter. As it is known, butter in its natural state is more yellow in summer than in winter. The reason for this is that animals are fed with green grass in the summer and therefore the β carotene [1] contained in these green grasses is also transferred to milk fat.
In winter, animals cannot get β-carotene from the feed because they are fed with dry grass and the butter produced in the winter months is closer to white.
As a result, the color of butter naturally fluctuates throughout the year. In fact, some consumers know this situation and take it naturally. However, since a significant portion of consumers is not aware of this situation, they may interpret this color fluctuation as a sign that the butter is unnatural or adulterated.
Consumers also expect a brand to provide consistent quality. Changes in the product’s color throughout the year may lead them to believe that the brand’s quality has declined.
The yellow color in butter creates a very effective perception of “quality” [2]. As a result, manufacturers often add β-carotene as a coloring additive to their butter, both to prevent color fluctuation and to create the perception that their products are of higher quality.
Colorants are divided into two classes. Colorants obtained from plants, animals and minerals are classified as “natural colorants” and are not subject to any certification process. The other class is mostly petroleum-based substances called “synthetic colorants” [3].
Synthetic colors are divided into dyes and lakes. It can be said that while dyes are used to color the entire food, lakes are used to color the food surface. Lakes are obtained by reacting dyes with aluminum hydroxide.
In general, they contain between 10-40% dye. They are insoluble in water and organic solvent. Lakes are frequently used for coloring dry and oily food surfaces.
While natural colorants are not subject to any certification, synthetic colorants must be certified to be used in foods. The common features of colorants are that they are easily soluble in water.
Synthetic colorants have significant advantages over natural colorants such as being relatively inexpensive and having a wider color range.
On the other hand, natural colorants may have undesirable properties such as changing the taste of the food they are added to and creating an undesirable taste.
However, as research on synthetic colors is made, it has been understood that some synthetic colors may have a toxic effect.
Natural food colorants
| Name | Color | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Beta-carotene (E 160a) | Yellow | Carrot |
| Caramel (E 150a) | Brown | Caramelizing sugar with heat |
| Crocin | Yellow | Saffron |
| Capsanthin (E 160c) | Red – Orange | Paprika |
| Betanin (E 162) | Red | Beetroot |
| Curcumin (E 100) | Yellow | Turmeric |
| Canthaxanthin (E 161g) | Red | Mushroom |
| Carmine (E 120) | Red | Dried and powdered Cochineal insect |
| Bixin (E 160bi and ii) | Yellow – Orange | Annatto |
Synthetic food colorants
| Name | Color | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Erythrosine (E 127 or FD&C red no. 3) | Pink | Disodium salt of 2,4,5,7-tetraiodofluorescein, petroleum derivative |
| Brilliant blue FCF (E 133 or FD&C blue no. 1) | Blue | Condensation of 2-formylbenzenesulfonic acid and the appropriate aniline followed by oxidation |
| Indigo carmine (E 132 or FD&C blue no. 2) | Blue | Coal tar |
| Sunset Yellow FCF (E 110 or FD&C yellow no. 6) | Orange – Yellow | Synthetic azo dye obtained by coupling diazotized 4-aminobenzenesulfonic acid with 6-hydroxy-2-naphthalenesulfonic acid. |
| Allura red (E129 or FD&C red no. 40) | Red | An azo coupling reaction of diazotized 5-amino-4-methoxy-2-toluenesulfonic acid with 6-hydroxy-2-naphthalene sulfonic acid |
| Chocolate brown HT (E 155) | Brown | Coal tar |
| Tartrazine (E 102 or FD&C yellow no. 5) | Yellow | The sulfanilic acid is diazotized and the diazonium salt binds to the pyrazolone compound. |
| Green S (E 142) | Green | Coal tar |
| Brown FK (E 154) | Brown | Brown mixture of six synthetic azo dyes with the addition of sodium chloride and/or sodium sulfate |
| Amaranth (E 123) | Red | Coal tar, a petroleum derivative |
Effects of Food Colorants on Health
For the last 50 years, scientific debates have been continuing on some synthetic colorants. In this context, each country makes its legal regulations. Therefore, the use of some synthetic colorants is allowed in some countries, while in others it is prohibited or limited.
For example, Green S is prohibited for use as a food additive in Canada, the United States, Japan and Norway. It is approved for use as a food additive in EU countries, Australia and New Zealand.
Similarly, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) from the United Kingdom reports that it is funding research into possible links between food colors and hyperactivity in children and that the consumption of certain synthetic food colorants may lead to increased hyperactivity in some children.
These synthetic colorants are; Sunset Yellow FCF (E 110), Quinoline yellow (E 104), Carmoisine (E 122), Allura red (E 129), Tartrazine (E102) and Ponceau 4R (E 124). According to the FSA, foods and beverages containing any of these six colors should have a warning on their packaging that says “May have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States and the European Food Safety Authority independently reviewed the results of this study and both institutions declared that they concluded that the study did not prove a link between the color additives tested and behavioral effects.
The FDA’s Committee on Hypersensitivity to Food Ingredients reported in 1986 that it concluded that Tartrazine (E 102) may cause urticaria in less than 1 in 10,000 people. It also stated that it was concluded that there is no evidence that tartrazine in food triggers asthma attacks.
In May 2021, a scientific opinion was published by the European Food Safety Authority concluding that Titanium dioxide (E 171) can no longer be considered a safe food additive.
Erythrosine (E 127 or Red No.3) was removed from the list of approved additives in foods, vitamin supplements and ingested medicines such as cough syrups in the US in January 2025. California was the first state in the US to ban E 127. However, this ban will go into effect in 2027. The use of Red No.3 (E 127) in cosmetic products such as lipstick and skin products was banned approximately 30 years ago.
In fact, the use of E 127 is banned or restricted in many countries, including the European Union, the UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. However, its use is permitted in Turkey.
It has been stated that the reason for the ban on Erythrosine (E 127 or Red No.3) is that laboratory rats developed thyroid tumors after being exposed to high levels of Erythrosine. In addition, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported that the development of tumors in the rats used in the study was due to a hormonal mechanism found in these animals, and this mechanism is not found in humans.
Erythrosine (E 127 or Red No.3) is often used in food and food supplements to add a bright cherry red color to increase the appeal of the product for children.
As a result, there is serious debate about the health effects of synthetic colorants. As a consumer, it would be a more logical way to be aware of why these substances are used and to turn to natural ones.
[1] β Carotene is one of the main molecules that gives butter its yellow color. Others are vitamins A and E. Many other molecules and factors also influence the color of butter.
[2] The perception of consumers that “the more yellow the butter is, the better quality” stems from the impression that animals are fed in open areas and green pastures. However, the degree of this yellow also differs from region to region. For example, butter produced in the Eastern Black Sea region (Turkiye) is the butter with the yellowest color. Even if the animals in other regions are fed on green pastures, it is very difficult for the butter produced to reach this color. In our study on butter produced in Trabzon (Turkiye), we revealed that Trabzon butter is the most yellow-colored butter in the world, and this was recorded in the literature.
[3] The term “nature-identical” is used for substances that are not natural but give a food the same characteristic as a natural substance. Nature-identical flavorings and colorants are artificial substances. The term is not entirely appropriate, because the word “nature” may give consumers the impression that the substance is natural.
References
Akgül, H. İ. (2015). Trabzon tereyağlarının bazı kalite parametrelerinin belirlenmesi. Atatürk Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü.
Altuğ, T. (Ed.). (2017). Gıda Katkı Maddeleri. Sidas Medya.
Saldamlı, İ. (Ed.). (2021). Gıda Kimyası. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Yayınları.
Tavlaş Hocalar, B. (2011). Tereyağı Teknolojisi (4. baskı). Ege Üniversitesi Basımevi.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2023). Color Additives Questions and Answers for Consumers.
Food Standards Agency. (2018). Food additives.
European Food Safety Authority. (2021). Titanium dioxide: E171 no longer considered safe when used as a food additive.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2025). FDA to Revoke Authorization for the Use of Red No. 3 in Food and Ingested Drugs.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2026). 21 CFR § 74.706 — FD&C Yellow No. 6.
Halil İbrahim Akgül
Halil Ibrahim Akgul, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Food Engineering at Bayburt University, where he works in the Division of Food Sciences within the Faculty of Engineering. He received his B.Sc. in Food Engineering from Akdeniz University in 2010, followed by an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Food Engineering from Atatürk University in 2015 and 2020, respectively. His formally recognised academic fields are Food Sciences and Engineering, Food Technologies, Dairy and Dairy Products Technology, and Food Microbiology.
Dr. Akgul has more than fifteen years of professional, research, and academic experience in food science. Between 2011 and 2013, he worked as the food engineer responsible for operations at the Pilot Dairy and Bread Factory of Atatürk University’s Directorate of Agricultural Enterprises. This industrial experience, combined with his subsequent academic research, gave him extensive practical and scientific knowledge of milk processing, dairy production, food quality, hygiene, and product development.
His research is primarily focused on milk and dairy products, dairy microbiology, starter cultures, lactic acid bacteria, exopolysaccharides, butter technology, and the physicochemical, microbiological, sensory, and nutritional properties of foods. His studies have examined the quality and fatty-acid composition of traditional butter, aroma formation in butter produced with different starter cultures, raw-milk quality, the characterisation and antioxidant activity of bacterial exopolysaccharides, traditional dairy products such as çökelek and karın kaymağı, colostrum powder, and the use of fruit-derived ingredients in ice cream production.
His academic record includes peer-reviewed research articles published in national and international journals, including Mljekarstvo, Acta Scientiarum Technology, the Journal of Food Safety and Food Quality, the International Journal of Food Engineering, the Atatürk University Journal of Agricultural Faculty, and ATA Food Journal. Four of the research articles currently listed in his university profile were published in SCI-Expanded-indexed journals. He has also contributed to twelve national and international conference papers and presentations covering dairy products, food microbiology, butter quality, fatty-acid composition, starter cultures, exopolysaccharide-producing bacteria, colostrum, traditional foods, and functional ice-cream formulations.
Dr. Akgul has participated as a researcher or adviser in eleven completed scientific and applied research projects. These projects have addressed the modernisation of pilot dairy-processing facilities; the production and quality characteristics of colostrum powder; the physicochemical and microbiological quality of butter and raw milk; the identification of exopolysaccharide-producing lactic acid bacteria; the development and production optimisation of starter cultures for mould-ripened cheese; the standardisation of traditional dairy products; and the use of sloe berry and persimmon fibre in ice-cream production.
His teaching experience spans undergraduate, associate-degree, and graduate education. The courses he has taught include Food Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Fermented Dairy Products Technology, Butter Production and Processing Technology, Healthy Living and Nutrition, Organic Agriculture and Food, Popular Science, Digital Literacy, and Information Technologies. Through these courses, he combines fundamental food chemistry and engineering principles with dairy technology, nutrition, scientific literacy, and the practical communication of scientific knowledge.
He is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Gıda ve Sağlık, a multilingual digital publication devoted to food, nutrition, health, food chemistry, food microbiology, and culinary science. Through this platform, he draws upon his academic background, teaching experience, research activity, and practical knowledge of food production to present scientifically grounded information in a detailed and accessible form for an international readership.