FD & C Colors – An Introduction
                     FD & C Colors – An Introduction
Anil Kumar
Writes on functional and active ingredients for 
personal care, home care, hair colour 
intermediates, sun filter ingredients, FD&C 
pigments and dyes.
    Artificial colors have wide applications across products belonging to 
various manufacturing industries like cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food 
ingredients, and personal care products. The colors used by these 
industries have special significance because they are for human 
consumption in many forms that can affect health. In industrial 
parlance, these color additives or pigments, better known as FD & C 
colors or Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics dyes and lakes or artificial colors 
must meet certain safety standards to ensure their suitability for human 
use. Therefore, these color additives must comply with the US FDA 
requirements to ensure that they are non-toxic and safe for human use 
in various products like shampoos, body washes, toothpaste, hand 
washes, cleansers, creams lotions, deodorants, wipes, baby products, 
food ingredients, and medicines. FD & C colors are ensuring the safe use 
of colors, dyes, and pigments in products meant for human 
consumption.
    What are FD & C color pigments?
    FD & C colors are nomenclatures of synthetic colors or color additives 
mentioned on cosmetics and food labels. In the early days, many color 
pigments were manufactured from coal tar, which is no longer true. The 
color additive certification process is administered by US FDA to meet 
the regulatory listings. This process has undergone many changes over 
the decade and the oversight/approval has become stricter over time. 
There is a Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act to protect public 
health which requires pre-market approval of color additives. The FDA 
maintains a permitted list of food colors. Broadly speaking the FD & C 
colors are permitted for use in food, drugs, and cosmetics.   
    Safe use of FD & C colors:
    Since the use of artificial colors is unavoidable in a wide range of 
products meant for human consumption by contact with the body, 
externally or internally, FDA has an approved list of synthetic colors that 
are safe to use. Manufacturers using synthetic colors in their products 
must adhere to the approved list of the FDA to ensure that the FD&C 
colors they use are safe for use in drugs, foods, and cosmetics. All FD & 
C colors belong to the list of FDA-approved colors. When you buy any 
product, check the label to ensure that it contains only permissible color 
ingredients. It would ensure that the colors are listed under 21 CFR81.1 
Part 82 of 21 CFR of the FDA and are safe for use.
    Decoding the safety symbols:
    To know about the safety of any artificial color you must understand the 
FDA code corresponding to a specific color. For example, if you come 
across an additive listed as FD&C Red4, it implies that it’s an artificial red 
color made by using ingredients safe for human use. Sometimes, you 
might see the name ‘aluminum lakes’ or ‘lakes’ appearing in the name 
like FD&C Red33 Aluminum Lake. Sometimes the name might not use 
FD&C but instead, just mention Blue1 or Blue1 Lake.
    Meaning of ‘lake’:
    So, what does the term ‘lake’ mean for artificial colors? The term ‘lake’ 
indicates that the manufacturing process consisted of a reaction 
between a dye and an inert binder like some metallic salt, usually 
aluminum. Hence, the name aluminum lake appears in the color’s 
name. FD& C colors are especially popular in cosmetics because it adds 
brilliant shades to the products.
  About Vinner Labs
    Vinner Labs specialises in the supply of 
functional and active ingredients for 
personal care, home care, hair dye 
intermediates, sun filter ingredients, FD&C 
pigments and dyes․ We have global reach 
and focused approach towards providing 
our customers with best products via our 
networked manufacturing and R&D 
facilities․ Vinner Labs aims to provide a 
wide range of functional active ingredients 
from a variety of technological platforms․ 
We are one of the unique players in this 
niche segment of specialty chemicals from 
India․ We consider ourselves as value-
unlockers in a variety of personal care 
categories including beauty care, skin care, 
and hair care․