Last week we received a special order request from a customer who is allergic to red food dye #40. It brought back memories.
I haven't thought about this in a long time. Years ago, I was at a basketball game at a local high school and before the game I ate a piece of lemon cake. Somewhere during the end of the first half of the game I began to itch intensely and started sweating. I went to the restroom and looked in the mirror to find my neck, back and chest covered with red hives. I didn't know what to make of it. I walked out of the building to get some fresh air. I took deep breaths and the intense itching decreased. Later that day I cut out the packaging label witht the food ingredients from the cake box and I saved it.
Years later I was at a party where I ate a flavored ice cream and I had the same reaction. I found the original cake label and checked the ice cream ingredients. The food labels matched on Yellow Dye #5.
Food dye is used in so many products from foods, to cosmetics, to personal hygiene products to home cleaning supplies, crayons and shampoo. Most of these products do not list ingredients as we know which puts the responsibility on us to be cautiously aware.