COAL-TAR COLORS USED IN FOOD PRODUCTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

 PURPOSE OF THE INVESTIGATION. 



For the purposes of the investigation reported in the following pages, 

 the legitimacy of the coloring of food and food products under certain 

 conditions is regarded as established ; the ethical and dietetic aspects 

 of the question of food coloring are not here considered. 



The means at hand for coloring food products may be conveniently 

 classified as vegetable, animal, mineral or inorganic, and synthetic 

 or so-called coal-tar colors or dyes. Representatives of each of these 

 have at one time or another all been used in the coloring of food, and 

 the laws of various European and American States have, from time 

 to time prohibited the use of certain specified members or all of each 

 or some of the foregoing classes. It is therefore obvious that even 

 for the legitimate purposes for which food can be colored, improper 

 means are at command, and some of these, if not all, have been 

 prohibited by law at some time or another. 



It is the function of the present work to determine what members 

 of the synthetic or coal-car colors should be considered legitimate 

 for coloring foods. It is confidently believed that the material 

 collected in the following pages points clearly and solely to the 

 following conclusions: 



1. Coal-tar dyes should not be used indiscriminately in foods. 



2. Only specified coal-tar dyes should be used in foods. 



3. Only tested and certified dyes should be used in foods. 



The work here reported has furnished the basis for Food Inspection 

 Decisions Nos. 76, 77, and 106, issued July 13, 1907, September 25, 

 1907, and March 25, 1909, respectively, and the investigation itself 

 was practically terminated January 1, 1910. 



The effect of these decisions has been to restrict the coal-tar colors 

 permitted for use in foods to seven specified and enumerated colors, 

 until such time as it shall be shown with reasonable conclusiveness 

 that other colors should be added to such list; and further, all coal-tar 

 colors permitted for use in food are to be of a degree of purity and 

 cleanliness acceptable to the Department of Agriculture, and are to 



be so certified. 



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