Yellow 5, Red 40 and six other widely used artificial colorings are linked to hyperactivity and behavior problems in children and should be prohibited from use in foods, according to the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Washington, D.C., which filed a petition with FDA in early June to ban the dyes, several of which are already being phased out in the U.K. The other six dyes are Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Orange B, Red 3 and Yellow 6.

Synthetic food dyes have been suspected of disrupting children’s behavior since the 1970s, when Dr. Ben Feingold, a San Francisco allergist, reported that his patients improved when their diets were changed. CSPI claims numerous controlled studies conducted over the next three decades in the U.S., Europe and Australia proved that some children’s behavior is worsened by artificial dyes, but that the government did nothing to discourage their use and food manufacturers greatly increased their reliance on them.

CSPI’s most recent petition asks FDA to require a warning label on foods with artificial dyes while it mulls CSPI’s request to ban the dyes outright. CSPI also wants FDA to correct the information it presents to parents on its website about the impact of artificial food dyes on behavior. (For more on this issue, turn to page 68 as associate editor Sean Moloughney discusses the recent CSPI petition and the colors market in more detail.)