Latest / The Monégasque Table / What Is a Certified Color Additive? Reading the Two Halves of the Label
Transcript
- Margaux: Half the color in your pantry is certified. The other half is exempt from certification. Both are legal. The word tells you which half you're holding, and almost nobody who reads a label knows that. Dana: Welcome to The Monégasque Table. Today's question came from a woman who runs a small bakery, and it came with a story. A health inspector was standing in her kitchen, holding a jar of shimmer she uses on wedding cakes, and he asked her one question: "Is the color in this certified?" She didn't know what he meant. So: what is a certified color additive, and does edible glitter use them? Margaux: Here's the answer up front. A certified color additive is a color whose every single batch is checked by the FDA before it can be sold. The maker sends a sample of the batch; the FDA runs at least 10 analyses on it — purity, moisture, salts, leftover intermediates, off-shade impurities, and the heavy metals lead, arsenic and mercury; the FDA's own page says that typically takes less than 5 working days; and if the sample passes, that batch is certified. Those are the synthetic dyes — the ones with "FD&C" in front of their names — and they live in part 74 of the color rules, which is literally titled "Color Additives Subject to Certification." The other half is part 73, titled "Color Additives Exempt from Certification": generally pigments from plants, minerals or animals, approved once as a type, without the batch step. And the FDA says in as many words that both halves must meet the same safety standard before they're approved. Does edible glitter use them? The label answers that. An ingredient list that names an FD&C dye is naming a certified color, because the law says certified colors have to be named. "Mica-based pearlescent pigment" is from the exempt half. Plenty of glitters, ours included, declare both kinds. What that means for any one jar in front of an inspector is a label-and-paperwork question, and this episode is going to teach you to read it — not rule on it. Dana: So her inspector's question has an answer, and the answer is on the jar. Margaux: Part of it is on the jar. The rest is in 2 documents she can ask for, and we'll get there. But first the word, because "certified" is doing a very specific job and people hear a general one. Dana: Sparkle Lab, then. Two halves. Start with the half that gets certified, because that's the half with the scary-sounding names. Margaux: The certified half is the synthetic dyes. The FDA's consumer page describes them plainly: synthetically produced — human-made — and used widely because they give an intense, uniform color, cost less, and blend easily. Those are the FD&C colors: FD&C Blue No. 1, Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6, and the rest of the list in part 74. The legal basis is section 721 of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which is the section that puts every color additive — except hair dyes — under FDA approval before use, and adds that many of them must be batch certified. Dana: And "batch certified" means what, physically? Somebody in a lab coat? Margaux: Somebody in a lab coat, with a sample. The color maker submits a sample of the batch. FDA personnel look at it and chemically analyze it — at least 10 analyses, for purity meaning total color content, moisture, residual salts, unreacted intermediates, colored impurities other than the main color, which they call subsidiary colors, any other specified impurities, and the heavy metals lead, arsenic and mercury. The results are checked against the identity and specifications written into that color's own listing. Typically less than 5 working days. Pass, and the batch is certified and can be sold. The listing for Blue No. 1 says it in one line: all batches shall be certified. Dana: 5 working days sounds fast for a government lab. That's my first number to argue with. Margaux: Argue with the FDA, not me — "typically take less than five working days" is their sentence, on their consumer page, and I'm reading it, not estimating it. And remember what the job is: 10 analyses on 1 sample of 1 batch, against a specification that already exists. It's a checking step, not a research project. Dana: Now the other half. Exempt. Because to my ear, "exempt from certification" means "nobody checks." Margaux: That's the first objection and it's the most common one, so let's take it apart. Part 73 is "Color Additives Exempt from Certification." The FDA describes that half as generally including dyes and pigments from natural sources — vegetables, minerals, or animals — and gives examples: annatto extract, dehydrated beets, caramel, beta-carotene, grape skin extract. Mineral pigments sit here too: titanium dioxide, iron oxide, and the one that matters for this show, mica-based pearlescent pigment, section 350. Now, 3 things the word "exempt" does not mean. It doesn't mean unapproved — the FDA's page says exempt colors still need FDA approval before use. It doesn't mean a lower bar — the same page says both classes "must meet the same safety standard prior to their approval for use in foods." And it doesn't mean no limits: section 350 writes its purity limits straight into the listing — lead not more than 4 parts per million, arsenic not more than 3, mercury not more than 1. The control point is different. Certified colors are checked batch by batch by the FDA. Exempt colors are approved as a type, with the specification written into the law, and the maker is the one who has to meet it. Dana: So "exempt" is "checked differently," not "checked less." Margaux: "Checked differently" is exactly right, and it's the sentence I'd want the inspector to hear. Dana: The label. You said the law makes certified colors name themselves. Show me. Margaux: Part 101, section 22, paragraph k. Two rules. One: a color additive subject to certification "shall be declared by the name of the color additive listed in the applicable regulation in part 74." So if a dye is certified, its name goes on the label — "FD&C Blue No. 1," or the FDA's Q&A page says the abbreviated form, "Blue 1," is fine. Two: colors exempt from certification, unless another rule names them specifically, "may be declared as 'Artificial Color,' 'Artificial Color Added,' or 'Color Added'" — or, if the maker chooses, by name. The FDA's page adds one exception in that exempt half: carmine, the cochineal red, has to be named because of allergic reactions in some people. Dana: So when I see "Red 40" on a label, that word is there because a law made it be there. Margaux: Because a law made it be there. And when you see "color added" with no name, you're looking at the exempt half, declared the lazy-but-legal way. That's the reading trick. A named dye is certified by definition. An unnamed "color added" is exempt by definition. Named exempt colors — "mica-based pearlescent pigment," "titanium dioxide" — are the maker choosing to name what the law would let them hide. Dana: Then do the glitter jar. Our listener's jar. Any jar. Margaux: The federal advisory on decorative products — the one this show quotes a lot — says makers of edible glitters and dusts are required by law to include a list of ingredients on the label, and it names the common ingredients: sugar, gum arabic, maltodextrin, cornstarch, and approved color additives "including mica-based pearlescent pigments and FD&C colors." So a typical edible glitter label carries both halves at once: a pigment from the exempt list doing the shimmer, and sometimes a dye from the certified list doing the tint. Across our own line, the declared color additives are mica-based pearlescent pigments, iron oxide, titanium dioxide, and 4 FD&C dyes — Red No. 40, Blue No. 1, Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6. Which of those is in which shade is decided by the exact jar's label, and only by the label; I won't infer a dye from a shade name, and neither should you. Dana: Then here's the question the inspector was actually asking, and I want a straight answer. Are your jars certified? Margaux: No jar is certified, and no jar is uncertified — ours, or anyone's — because the word doesn't attach to jars. Certification is a property of a dye batch at the color maker, established by that 10-analysis check. It is not a property of a finished glitter, a brand, or a facility. If a label names a certified dye, that dye's batches went through certification at its maker. If a label names a pigment from part 73, that pigment is exempt from batch certification by the law that lists it. That's the honest answer to "is the color certified": the certified dyes on this label are certified colors; the pigment is an exempt color; here is the label and here is the paperwork. Whether any particular jar is fully compliant for the food it's going on is a separate question for the label and the paperwork, and I don't rule on that on a podcast — about our jars or anybody else's. Dana: My round, then, and it's about the inspector. If the word doesn't attach to jars, then "is the color certified" is the wrong question. It's a real question with a real answer, but it's not the one that protects her. The one that protects her is "what is the ingredient list, and can you get me the paperwork for it." She can answer that in 30 seconds with the jar in her hand. She cannot answer "is it certified" without a lecture, and inspectors don't want lectures. Margaux: That's the round you win, and it's the practical center of this whole episode. Give the inspector the label — the named dyes and the named pigment — and give him the 2 documents that go with it. Don't give him the word. Dana: The 2 documents. Because the bakery owner's supplier sent her a safety data sheet and she thought she was done. Third objection: isn't the SDS enough? Margaux: No, and this is the most useful thing a small food business can learn about paperwork. A safety data sheet is an occupational-hazard document. It's about handling a powder in a workplace — dust, eyes, spills. It is not food-compliance evidence, and it doesn't claim to be. "Will you send me the SDS?" is not the decisive supplier test, even though it feels like one. The 2 documents that speak to food are: the product specification — what's in it and to what limits — and a written regulatory statement from the supplier naming the intended food categories, in the words the listing uses. For a mica pigment that means the categories in section 350: confections and frostings, hard and soft candies, cocktails and cocktail mixers, and so on, each with its own ceiling — 1.25 percent by weight in frostings and confections, for example. Ask for those 2 in writing, from us or from anyone, and route the request to the team rather than to a podcast. If a supplier goes quiet when you ask, that silence is your answer. Dana: And the SDS? Margaux: Keep it. It's the third document, for the workplace, and an inspector may ask about dust in a bakery. It's just not the one that answers his color question. Dana: Let me try the number thing one more time, because I want the listener to have it in her pocket. Frostings: 1.25 percent by weight. That's the pigment's ceiling in a frosting. Margaux: Written into section 350, category by category. And the important habit is the one you just did — name the category. The ceiling is not one number for all food; it's a table. A frosting and a cocktail have different lines, and eggnog and soft drinks aren't on the table at all, as we said 4 episodes ago. A supplier's regulatory statement should read like that table, not like a slogan. Dana: Back to her kitchen for a second, because I want to hear how the conversation should have gone. Margaux: Inspector: "Is the color in this certified?" Owner: "It's got 2 kinds — here's the label. The pigment is mica-based pearlescent pigment, which is on the exempt list, section 350 of part 73. The dye is named, which means it's a certified color from part 74. I have the supplier's specification and their regulatory statement naming the food categories, and I can email them to you today." That's 4 sentences, no lecture, and every word of it checkable. He writes something down and moves on to the hand-washing sink. Dana: Whereas what she said was "I think so?" Margaux: Which is also what I'd have said the first time somebody asked me. The question sounds like it wants a yes. It actually wants a label. Dana: Who should skip this? Because most people listening have never met a health inspector and don't want to. Margaux: 3 skips. If you're a home baker who just wants to know whether the jar is safe to eat, skip the word entirely — you want our label-checklist episode, and the checklist is: ingredients listed, color additives named, no "for decoration only." Certified versus exempt is not the home test. Second, if you're hoping to buy a "certified glitter" — a badge, a seal, a sticker — skip that search, because there's no such thing: the word attaches to dye batches, not to jars, and anyone selling you a "certified" jar is selling you a word. Third, if you're a business owner who wants a podcast to rule on whether a specific jar — ours or a rival's — is compliant for a specific cake, skip us for that; the label and the 2 documents are the ruling, and you get them from the supplier, in writing. Dana: And the second "skip" is the one that worries me. Because somebody is going to hear this episode and print "made with certified colors" on a bakery menu. Margaux: Then hear this part twice: a named FD&C dye on a label is a certified color. The glitter is not "certified," the cake is not "certified," and the bakery is not "certified" by anyone. If you want a true sentence for a menu, the true sentence is "made with listed color additives; ingredient list available on request." It's less exciting, and it's the one you can defend. Dana: Dana's Scorecard. I came in thinking "certified" was a gold star. Where I landed. One: a certified color is a dye whose every batch the FDA checks — sample in, at least 10 analyses, typically under 5 working days, pass or fail — and those are the FD&C colors in part 74. Two: exempt is not "unchecked," it's "checked differently" — same safety standard, approved as a type, with the limits written into the listing, lead 4, arsenic 3, mercury 1. Three: the label tells you which half you're holding, because the law makes certified dyes name themselves and lets exempt ones hide behind "color added" — so a named dye is certified, and a named pigment is a maker choosing to tell you. Four: no jar is certified or uncertified, and asking is the wrong question — that's my round — the right question is the ingredient list and the 2 documents. Five: an SDS is a workplace document, and the 2 food documents are the specification and the regulatory statement naming the categories. My caveat: I think the word "exempt" was a terrible choice by whoever wrote part 73, and I'd like that on the record. Margaux: On the record, and I agree with you — "exempt" reads as a loophole and describes a different control point. The footnote: the MONÉGASQUE 15 gram luster dusts are on Amazon at $14.99 with the color additives named on the label, and if your inspector wants the specification and the regulatory statement, ask our team through the contact page rather than the listing. Dana: Next time, back to December. When do you put edible glitter on a yule log — before the fridge or after? Margaux: Before, and the recipe hands you the exact moment. And after that: chocolate truffles — rolled, not dipped, and why that changes the whole answer. One note before we go — this show is produced by the team at Monégasque, with AI-crafted hosts, and every number you heard was checked by humans against the documents. See you at the table.