Types of food colouring
If you’re into baking, you’ll probably know that there are many different types of food colouring products on the market, some are:
- Gel Paste Food Colouring
- Powdered Food Colouring
- Oil Based Food Colour
- Airbrush Food Colour
- Edible Food Pen
- Edible Food Paint
- Aqua Food Colouring
These are classed as artificial colourants. They are made from chemicals that over time have been regulated, because they have been found to be carcinogenic. Newer food colourants still are made from chemicals that have to be certified through international regulatory bodies.
The other type of food colourant is oraganic. These are made from natural plant and vegetable colours. Usually foods like achiote, cochineal insect’s carmine, elderberry, lycopene, paprika and turmeric. The colours are usually made by adding solvents like acetone and hexane to the vegetable to remove the colour.
Companies like Hopper Foods started manufacturing natural colours that were free from solvents and other artificial products, and pride themselves on quality organic and natural food dyes. These colours are not classed as “additives” but as “ingredients”, and therefore are the safest to use. The colours are made by only using water in the extraction process, and there are no preservatives, nuts, gluten, egg or dairy in the colours.
Colourful toys
Put simply, don’t get colourful toys for your rabbits to chew. They may get sick by chewing on them.
Artificial dyes can kill your bunny. These dyes are created with synthetic chemicals that can cause serious internal injuries. They can cause long-term digestion imbalances and cancers in the intestine.
Organic colours contain chemicals that are harmful to bunnies and the process of applying them to the toy (wood, hay etc) uses more chemicals that can cause intestinal issues, neurological problems (like head tilt) and in severe cases paralysis.
Colourful foods
Any bright coloured food usually is advertising that it is high in sugar. Which is not good for your bunny.
natural vegetable-based colours (like those by Hopper Foods) can be used in rabbit foods, but companies who can afford to use the colours don’t waste the money.
Don’t be fooled, animal food packaging does not tell the truth of what is really in the food. There are no laws for manufacturing companies to follow when producing animal feed.
WARNING
Be aware that some companies use green dye to make hay and grass products look nicer to us, but can be dangerous for your bunny.
If the hay or grass has a deep greeny-grey colour, it has been dyed. Hay is usually a dried yellowy-green colour.
Dyed hays are usually found in the bags in pet shops,and Timothy hay is known to be dyed.
I go with the motto:Â If it looks good to me it isn’t good for my bunny.
Artificial colours
Artificial colours are those that are synthetic.
According to Food Standards Australia and New Zealand:Â
From time to time there are media reports about additives causing cancer in animals. It’s important to note substances that cause cancer or illness in animals don’t always cause cancer in humans because these substances act in very different ways in people. A good example of this is chocolate, which can be deadly to dogs but doesn’t affect humans.
This means if it is safe for us, it is not safe for our rabbits. It’s easier to not give it to them.
On packaging, in Australia, manufacturers may list the name of the colour, or the International Numbering System (INS) number, either way it is important to be familiar with them.
Keep in mind it is not a legal requirement for manufacturers to list colours used in pet foods. It should be, but it’s not.
Banned additives
- Amaranth, INS 123
- Vegetable carbon (carbon black), INS 153
- Cyclamate, INS 952
- Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), INS 320
- Ammonium phosphates, INS 342
- Ammonium malate, INS 349
Allowed Additives
- Amaranth, 123
- Annatto, 160b
- Erythrosine, 120
- Cochineal and Carmines, 120
- Allura Red AC, 129
- Azorubine/Carmoisine 122
- Brilliant Black BN, 151
- Brilliant Blue FCF, 133
- Brown HT, 155
- Fast green FCF, 143
- Green S, 142
- Indigotine, 132
- Ponceau 4R, 124
- Quiniline yellow, 104
- Sunset yellow FCF, 110
- Tartrazine, 102
The only two organic colours in the list is Annatto and Cochineal. The rest are chemically based.
In human foods, these colours are used at 70mg/L in beverages, and 290mg/kg in other foods.
For kicks, Erythrosine is used to give glace cherries their colour, and it is at 200mg/kg of cherries. Anatto is used to give milk its colour at 10mg/L. And, Amaranth is used in confectionary (300ml/kg) and beverages (10mg/kg).
If you’re interested, here’s an important to know additive list and a full list of all permitted additives in Australia.
Adding food colour to wood
There are a lot of home-methods to apply food colour as a wood stain. Which is great for kids, but not for rabbits. Different variations include:
- adding vinegar to the dye to make it “dry” brighter
- adding rubbing alcohol
- adding warm water
- mixing soft-drink into the dye
- wood stain with powder food dye
- minwax polycrylic clear satin finish
- soap flakes
- resin
- methylated spirits
I’m not saying they won’t work for human decorations, indeed I haven’t even tried them, but these methods are not safe for rabbits.