FOOD-COLOR REQUIREMENTS. 29 



milted colors. There is no choice whatever in the shade produced 

 fay the desired Azorubin and the permitted Amaranth, nor is there 

 any difference in behavior toward citric acid. The difference in the 

 shade between the desired Orange II and the permitted Orange I is 

 so small that it requires a side-by-side comparison to distinguish 

 between them. Moreover, the desired Orange II produces a precipi- 

 tate when brought in contact with the citric acid, whereas the per- 

 mitted Orange I does not so precipitate. The permitted Erythrosin 

 is, of course, completely precipitated by the citric acid. The per- 

 mitted Light Green and Indigo disulphoacid are weakened in tinctorial 

 power by the addition of the citric acid. Of these colors the only 

 ones used to any extent in beverages, so far as either the suggested 

 or permitted list is concerned, are red, yellow, green, and orange. 



As has been shown the permitted reds equal the desired reds and 

 the permitted orange is better than the desired orange. The tinc- 

 torial power of the permitted yellow is not so great as the tinctorial 

 power of the desired yellow, but this difference is so slight that the 

 objection urged against the list of permitted colors, namely that they 

 were so poor in quality that they had destroyed a profitable and 

 lucrative business in the coloring of beverages, is untenable in view 

 of the fact that, assuming a price of $1 per pound for Tartrazin, and 

 40 cents for Naphthol Yellow S, and using them in the proportions 

 necessary to produce a lemonade color in a 10 per cent citric acid 

 solution, it would take 5,000 quarts of finished lemonade to cause 

 an increase of 1 cent in the cost of the production of the colored 

 food product; that is, it increases the price per quart by one 

 five-thousandth of a cent. 



It has also been urged that the permitted green is not good enough 

 for cordials and liqueurs, and that it is impossible to bring about the 

 proper green by the use of the permitted yellow and blue. This criti- 

 cism, however, has not been persisted in; the fact is that mixtures of 

 the permitted yellow and blue can be made so as to obtain any desired 

 shade of green, having a yellow or blue cast, and great clarity and 

 brilliancy. How these mixed colors would look after a long period 

 of time has not been ascertained. 



It has also been said that the permitted red, Amaranth, is not a 

 color suitable for the coloring of strawberry jams and it has been urged 

 that the same chemical individual under another commercial name 

 is better than the permitted red. This criticism has not been pressed, 

 probably for the reason that it can not be substantiated. 



Again it was claimed that the deposits to be noticed in bottled 

 lemonades were due to Naphthol Yellow S, but solutions of Naphthol 

 Yellow S in citric acid have remained without deposit for upward of 

 15 months; it is possible that such precipitation, if observed, may be 

 due to an admixture of the nonpermitted Orange II with Naphthol 



