Editing Food coloring (section)

===History===
With the onset of the industrial revolution, people became dependent on foods produced by others.<ref name="Arlt" /> These new urban dwellers demanded food at low cost. Analytical chemistry was still primitive and regulations few. The [[Adulterated food|adulteration of foods]] flourished.<ref name="Arlt" /> Heavy metal and other inorganic element-containing compounds turned out to be cheap and suitable to "restore" the color of watered-down milk and other foodstuffs, some more lurid examples being:<ref name="a">{{cite journal |last1= Downham |first1= Alison |last2= Collins |first2= Paul |title= Colouring our foods in the last and next millennium |journal= International Journal of Food Science and Technology |volume= 35 |pages= 5–22 |year= 2000 |access-date= 18 Feb 2014 |url= http://www.blacksci.co.uk/products/journals/freepdf/tmp1.pdf |doi= 10.1046/j.1365-2621.2000.00373.x |citeseerx= 10.1.1.466.4598 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140811180953/http://www.blacksci.co.uk/products/journals/freepdf/tmp1.pdf |archive-date= 11 August 2014 |url-status= dead }}</ref>
* [[Red lead]] (Pb<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub>) and [[Cinnabar|vermillion]] (HgS) were routinely used to color cheese and confectionery.
* [[Copper arsenite]] (CuHAsO<sub>3</sub>) was used to recolor used tea leaves for resale. It also caused two deaths when used to color a dessert in 1860.

Sellers at the time offered more than 80 artificial coloring agents, some invented for dyeing textiles, not foods.<ref name="a" /> {{quote|Thus, with potted meat, fish and sauces taken at breakfast he would consume more or less [[Armenian bole]], red lead, or even bisulphuret of mercury [vermillion, HgS]. At dinner with his curry or cayenne he would run the chance of a second dose of lead or mercury; with pickles, bottled fruit and vegetables he would be nearly sure to have copper administrated to him; and while he partook of bon-bons at dessert, there was no telling of the number of poisonous pigments he might consume. Again his tea if mixed or green, he would certainly not escape without the administration of a little [[Prussian blue]]...<ref>{{cite book |last= Hassel |first= A.H. |editor-last= Amos |editor-first= Arthur James |title= Pure Food and Pure Food Legislation |publisher= Butterworths|location= London |year= 1960 |page= 12 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=3KI1AQAAIAAJ }}</ref>}} Many color additives had never been tested for toxicity or other adverse effects. Historical records show that injuries, even deaths, resulted from tainted colorants. In 1851, about 200 people were poisoned in England, 17 of them fatally, directly as a result of eating adulterated [[throat lozenge|lozenges]].<ref name="Arlt" /> In 1856, [[mauveine]], the first [[Synthetic dye#Synthetic dye|synthetic color]], was developed by [[Sir William Henry Perkin]] and by the turn of the century, unmonitored color additives had spread through Europe and the United States in all sorts of popular foods, including ketchup, mustard, jellies, and wine.<ref>{{cite journal |last= Walford |first= J. |title= Historical Development of Food Colouration |journal= Developments in Food Colours |volume= 1 |pages= 1–25 |publisher= Applied Science Publishers |location= London |year= 1980 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=A Global Perspective on the History, Use, and Identification of Synthetic Food Dyes|author1=Sharma, Vinita|author2=McKone, Harold T.|author3=Markow, Peter G.|journal=Journal of Chemical Education|year=2011|volume=88|issue=1 |pages=24–28|doi=10.1021/ed100545v|bibcode=2011JChEd..88...24S }}</ref> Originally, these were dubbed 'coal-tar' colors because the starting materials were obtained from [[bituminous coal]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Hancock|first=Mary|title=Potential for Colourants from Plant Sources in England & Wales|url=http://ienica.csl.gov.uk/usefulreports/colourants.pdf|work=UK Central Science Laboratory|access-date=20 January 2013|year=1997|quote=The use of natural dyes in the UK and the rest of the Western economies has been replaced commercially by synthetic dyes, based mainly on aniline and using petroleum or coal tar as the raw stock.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513035834/http://ienica.csl.gov.uk/usefulreports/colourants.pdf|archive-date=13 May 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Barrows">{{cite web |last1=Barrows |first1=Julie N. |last2=Lipman |first2=Arthur L. |last3=Bailey |first3=Catherine J. |title= Color Additives: FDA's Regulatory Process and Historical Perspectives |publisher= FDA (Reprinted from Food Safety Magazine October/November 2003 issue) |date= 17 Dec 2009 |url= https://www.fda.gov/ForIndustry/ColorAdditives/RegulatoryProcessHistoricalPerspectives/default.htm |access-date= 2 Mar 2012|quote=Although certifiable color additives have been called coal-tar colors because of their traditional origins, today they are synthesized mainly from raw materials obtained from petroleum.}}</ref>

Synthetic dyes are often less costly and technically superior to natural dyes.<ref name="a" /><ref name=Azodye>{{Ullmann|first1 = Klaus|last1 = Hunger|first2 = Peter|last2 = Mischke|first3 = Wolfgang|last3 = Rieper|first4 = Roderich|last4 = Raue|first5 = Klaus|last5 = Kunde|first6 = Aloys|last6 = Engel|display-authors=3|title = Azo Dyes|year = 2005|doi = 10.1002/14356007.a03_245}}</ref><ref name=JK>{{Citation |last= König |first= J. |editor-last= Scotter |editor-first= Michael J. |title= Colour Additives for Foods and Beverages |publisher= Elsevier |year= 2015 |chapter= Food colour additives of synthetic origin |pages= 35–60 |doi= 10.1016/B978-1-78242-011-8.00002-7 |isbn= 978-1-78242-011-8 }}</ref>