Color Warnings on Hyperactivity Coming to a Food Near You?

By Ricardo Carvajal - 

FDA announced that its Food Advisory Committee will meet on March 30 and 31, 2011, “to discuss whether available relevant data demonstrate a link between children’s consumption of synthetic color additives in food and adverse effects on behavior.”  Earlier this year, the European Union ("EU") moved to require the use of a health warning on food (including beverages) containing certain colors after the publication of a study that suggested a possible association between those colors and hyperactive behavior in children.  In the EU, the label of a food that contains one or more of the affected colors and that is produced after July 20, 2010, must state: "may have effects on activity and attention in children."  Among the colors subject to the EU warning requirement are FD&C Yellow 5, FD&C Yellow 6 and FD&C Red 40.