Tartrazine: Introduction
Tartrazine, also known as FD&C Yellow no 5, is an artificially produced colouring. It is not a new invention - in 1884 tartrazine was one of the first synthetic pigments to be patented. Today, it is a common additive found in foods, beverages, medicines, vitamin supplements, cosmetics, toiletries and other non food products.
It is easy to think of tartrazine as a simple product adding only colour. The reality is quite different. Whilst the primary purpose of tartrazine is to add to colour to food, drugs, drinks, creams and lotions, it also introduces into your body a range of chemicals. Tartrazine is not just a colour, it is a complex product containing many different chemical compounds. You can read a full technical specification in the Appendix: Just What is Tartrazine.
Out of all the food colourings in current use, tartrazine has been the one most implicated in causing adverse reactions. Reports in the medical literature date back to the 1950s. For example, in 1959 Lockey reported on 3 people with a history of rashes that occurred when taking tartrazine coloured drugs (18).
Tartrazine often causes adverse reactions such as recurrent urticaria, angioedema, and asthma and is frequently implicated in behavioural problems (7). The most common symptoms linked with a tartrazine sensitivity are urticaria and asthma (10) but, like with any food or chemical, symptoms are very individual specific.
It has also been found that many individuals who are allergic to anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin, also experience adverse reactions to tartrazine.
This book provides you with a summary of the main research studies that have identified tartrazine as causing adverse reactions in some individuals. Studies that have been carried out on animals have not been included because, ethical concerns aside, the results are not directly transferable to humans.
I have also not included studies that 'disprove' tartrazine problems and lay the blame on over protective parents and/or on psychological problems. These studies often provide more information on how not to conduct research rather than on the health effects of food additives.
The reality is that tartrazine, like some other food additives, does cause problems for some children and adults. My concern is to present the facts as they are currently known.
[Introduction from the eBook Tartrazine.]