Would you eat coal tar waste?

Tartrazine is an industrial waste-derived coloring chemical that is extracted from coal tar and is commonly used in food products today. So if you are eating any orange or yellow artificially colored products, they contain tartrazine, E102 or Yellow #5.

by Joanne Henning Tedesco — 

In 2007, a landmark study was conducted by the United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency that concluded that tartrazine, also known as E102 or Yellow #5, was one of the food colorings linked to childhood hyperactivity. Today in the European Union, products containing it must carry a warning label. Unfortunately, the U.S. has no such law.

Tartrazine is an industrial waste-derived coloring chemical that is extracted from coal tar and is commonly used in food products today. So if you are eating any orange or yellow artificially colored products, they contain tartrazine, E102 or Yellow #5. In fact, the product does not have to be yellow to have the ingredient in it. It is also used in a lot of processed chocolate foods and green pickles. The use in pickles is especially surprising. But yes, Yellow #5 is there — I checked the ingredient list on the jar before I threw them out.

Some other products from the long list are flavored chips, cheese-flavored products, cereals, puddings and cake mixes, fruit snacks, JELL-O®, ice cream, ice pops and popsicles, confectionery and hard candy, energy and sports drinks, condiments and spreads. Also on the list are prescription and non-prescription pharmaceutical drugs, some children’s chewable vitamins, chewable pills for colds/fever reducers, personal care and cosmetics products, temporary tattoos and fake tans.

The most important things to do are to read every food label religiously and buy organic foods as often as possible.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/tartrazine, food.com and health.com.

Joanne Henning Tedesco is editor of AzNetNews.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 32, Number 2, April/May 2013.