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Color

What the research shows

Unclear

the research on this page hasn’t settled it

Covers the group as a whole. Each one has its own page.

A substance that adds or restores colour in food.

It gives food or drinks their colour.12

What research says

Studies in people

  • Open question

    Child behaviour and ADHD3

    Some studies link artificial food dyes to hyperactivity in children, but others found no clear effect.

  • Open question

    Children's behaviour4

    Some studies found children behaved worse after eating synthetic food dyes, but scientists do not yet know why only some children react.

  • Open question

    Child behaviour and focus5

    In children, cutting out artificial food colorings may help with attention and behaviour problems.

  • Open question

    ADHD symptoms in children6

    In some studies, foods and placebos containing SULT1A inhibitors, including artificial food colors, made ADHD symptoms better or worse.

The signal at the top counts the findings in people and in animal and lab studies. A concern in studies of people outranks animal and lab studies, and “No concerns” needs at least one finding in people. When most findings in people point one way, the page leans that way (“Mostly”), and every finding is still shown. Findings whose study type is not stated are shown but not counted. This page is a reference, not medical advice. It describes what regulators and published research say. Talk to a doctor or dietitian about your own diet.

Products

The 6 most-scanned of 66,777 products on Open Food Facts that list color.

  • Cocacola original 500 Coca-Cola · 1 l 3 additives
  • Cappy PULPY Coca cola · 1 L 9 additives
  • Coke Zero Coca-Cola · 330 ml 5 additives
  • Coke Original Taste Coca-Cola · 33 cl 2 additives
  • Coca Cola Original taste Coca-Cola · 1.5 l 2 additives
  • غلال القمح Jaouda · 110 g 0 additives

References

  1. 1color: ingredient taxonomy entry. Open Food Facts.
  2. 2Food coloring. Wikipedia. Accessed September 30, 2026. CC BY-SA 4.0.
  3. 3Kanarek RB. Artificial food dyes and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Nutr Rev. 2011;69(7):385-91. doi:10.1111/j.1753-4887.2011.00385.x
  4. 4Miller MD, Steinmaus C, Golub MS, et al. Potential impacts of synthetic food dyes on activity and attention in children: a review of the human and animal evidence. Environ Health. 2022;21(1):45. doi:10.1186/s12940-022-00849-9
  5. 5Russell D, Arnold LE. Complementary and Integrative Treatments for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Youth. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 2023;32(2):173-192. doi:10.1016/j.chc.2022.08.005
  6. 6Eagle K. ADHD impacted by sulfotransferase (SULT1A) inhibition from artificial food colors and plant-based foods. Physiol Behav. 2014;135:174-9. doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.06.005