How worried should you be about caramel color? Here's what experts say

Synthetic food dyes appear to be on their way out after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned Red 3 on Jan. 15 following mounting concerns from researchers and American consumers. Consumer Reports is now petitioning the FDA to outlaw six other artificial dyes after studies linked the dyes to neurobehavioral issues in schoolchildren. 

However, these dyes — made from petroleum — aren't the only additives on the block. Caramel color is in soft drinks, precooked meats, beer, chocolate-flavored products, and popular marinades like soy and Worcestershire sauces, per the Center for Science in the Public Interest. 

Why is caramel color in our food, and is it dangerous? To sort through the noise, The Cool Down spoke with Thomas Galligan, an independent, nonpartisan expert with the CSPI — an organization with more than 50 years of experience advocating for consumer and public health. 

What is Caramel Color, and why is it added to food?

Caramel color is exactly what it sounds like, according to Galligan, who has a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences with a focus on toxicology and endocrinology. Basically, manufacturers add caramel color to foods and beverages in order to give them that brownish caramel color. 

"It's there for cosmetic reasons, and so it's not strictly necessary," Galligan told TCD. "... It's a marketing tool that the industry likes to use."

Is Caramel Color safe?

Unlike synthetic food dyes, caramel color isn't derived from petroleum — a notoriously polluting dirty fuel also used to create most plastics. Instead, it is made from sugar. 

That doesn't mean caramel color is safe, though. Galligan told TCD that certain varieties of caramel color contain contaminants linked to cancer. For instance, in 2014, Consumer Reports sounded the alarm after discovering the cancer-linked chemical 4-methylimidazole, or 4-MEI, in soft drinks with caramel color. The U.S. National Toxicology Program concluded in 2007 that this contaminant caused lung cancer in male and female mice and possibly leukemia in female rats.  

Why hasn't the FDA banned caramel color?

The FDA said on its official website that it has "no reason to believe that there are any immediate or short-term health risks presented by 4-MEI at the levels expected in food," adding that eliminating 4-MEI in food altogether is impossible because it forms "during normal cooking processes" — like roasting coffee beans or grilling meat. 

However, the agency acknowledged that manufacturers can take action to reduce 4-MEI levels, explaining that Class I and Class II varieties of caramel color do not contain 4-MEI. In contrast, Class III and Class IV caramel colors do. Manufacturers are not required to disclose what type of caramel color they use because the coloring is in the "natural" category.

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"A company could just choose to put the vague term 'color added' or 'artificial color' and not list those chemicals by name, which makes it essentially impossible for consumers to avoid them comprehensively," Galligan told TCD. 

What should consumers do about caramel color?

The CSPI's Chemical Cuisine database rates additives on a five-category scale. Galligan told TCD that caramel color has received an "avoid" designation — reserved for additives that are clearly unsafe to consume or too poorly tested to deem acceptable. 

"It would be worth avoiding or drinking less cola and other ammonia-caramel-colored beverages not only because of risk from the 4-methylimidazole but of course because the products contain about 10 teaspoons of sugar per 12 ounces and promote obesity and tooth decay," the CSPI wrote in its breakdown of caramel color.

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