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(Image source: Bloomberg) BY BRIANA ALTERGOTT
Two food bloggers
from North Carolina are after Kraft Foods over the trademark yellow color of its macaroni
and cheese.
Lisa Leake and Vani Hari both grew up eating Kraft Mac & Cheese, and
Leake used to make it for her two daughters. But the two moms now argue the product’s
artificial coloring is unsafe.
Leake and Hari started a petition on Change.org
to try and convince Kraft to stop using Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 dyes in its macaroni and cheese.
As of early Friday, close to 128,000 people had signed it.
According to their petition,
artificial food dyes: • Are made from chemicals derived from petroleum
• Are contaminated with known carcinogens • Cause an increase in hyperactivity in
children • Have been linked to long-term health problems
(asthma, skin rashes, and migraines) • Add no nutritional value and are solely
used for aesthetic purposes And others agree -- an article from Livestrong
lists many of the same problems.
These dyes are rarely, if ever, used in Europe.
Some countries allow the use of Yellow 5 if there’s a warning slapped on the box, and
others have completely banned it. The United Kingdom’s take on mac and cheese, called
Cheesey Pasta, gets its color from paprika and beta-carotene.
Kraft isn’t by any
means the only food company using artificial additives. But USA Today reported that Leakes
and Hari “...wanted to make sure we targeted (a company) that could set an example of providing
safer foods, eliminating ingredients that are bad for health reasons, and get away from
this double standard."
Kraft spokesperson Lynne Galia responded in an email to ABC News:
"We carefully follow the laws and regulations in the countries where our products are sold.
So in the U.S., we only use colors that are approved and deemed safe for food use by the
Food and Drug Administration."
As for the FDA -- it admits some people might be
“sensitive” to Yellow No. 5.