A federal advisory panel, in an 8-to-6 vote, decided that there isn’t enough evidence to justify requiring warnings on food labels about a possible link between food dyes and hyperactivity in children.
But, as the Los Angeles Times reports, the Food and Drug Administration panel called for more studies on the issue.
“There’s something going on,” said Lisa Lefferts, an environmental consultant who cast one of the votes in favor of warnings on food labels. “Parents know that. But it’s hard to measure.”
One of the key arguments that prevailed in the panel’s vote was that warnings on food labels could raise unwarranted fears, given what’s currently known about food dyes, which are present in foods ranging from candies and cereals to bagels and pickles. “It’s scary more than it’s educational,” said Dr. A. Wesley Burks of the Duke University Medical Center.
The hearings were spurred, in part, by two studies from the United Kingdom that have found a connection between hyperactivity and the consumption of a number of food dyes. In response, the British government urged manufacturers to stop including six dyes in their products.
Frustrated with the FDA panel’s decision, food safety advocates said that the experts should have approached the issue from the other direction. “The question they should have asked is, ‘Is there proof the dyes are safe?’” said Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which has called upon the FDA to ban the dyes.
The panel’s vote doesn’t determine FDA policy, but the agency ordinarily abides by the recommendations. “I’m skeptical that FDA will take any action,” Jacobson said after the vote. “It’s probably settled for some number of years.”
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