Two Moms Want Yellow Dyes Cut From Macaroni & Cheese

Two moms are on a mission to get Kraft to change its crafty ways. Lisa Leake and Vani Hari both have young kids who love Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. They’ve served the stuff to kids with no qualms over the years, but after determining the Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 dyes used in the U.S. version of the product have been shown to potentially be harmful, they’ve put together a petition asking Kraft to stop the practice.

Various studies have shown that although rare, children might have serious allergic reactions to the dyes. Additionally, separate studies have shown that the dyes could potentially increase the risk of cancer in an individual. All of these could’s and might’s have been documented in a report from the watchdog group The Center For Science in the Public Interest. Still, whether or not dyes actually pose a risk for people, they certainly don’t help the nutritional value of a product, and plenty of countries have banned or adapted warning labels for products where dye is used.

The two moms and bloggers put together a petition over at Change.org asking that the company take the dye out of their macaroni products. So far, that petition has amassed over 40,000 signatures. However, Kraft doesn’t seem to be budging. The company says it makes 14 other products in the U.S. that don’t use food coloring and until the FDA says no to yellow dyes, the company will likely stick to the plan.

In the U.K., Kraft uses beta carotene and paprika to color the product.

Food dye is in plenty of products, from cereal to candy and fruit juices, and it’s pretty telling the two women have only directed the heat to one big company and, in fact, one big product within a company. There are plenty of boxed macaroni products in the market that don’t use food dyes if you are interested in seeking them out. If you are worried about the dye stuff, it's not that difficult to read a label.