food coloring safety

I have had to give my cats lower quality canned food lately instead of the premium brands I used to buy. Last night I opened a can of salmon flavored Friskies only to find it unnaturally pink; checked the ingredients and it listed "red 3", which I hadn't noticed when I bought it. I fed it to the cats anyway.

This morning when cleaning the litter box I found pink stools, almost the same color as the food! Is this normal when eating artificially colored food? Should I be worried at all?

Red 3 is a reeealllllyyy common, FDA "generally recognized as safe" food coloring, and is also frequently reported as an allergen in humans. I've known several people severely allergic to it (anaphylactic style allergic). As far as I know, it's not easily digestible because it's coal-tar based. It was observed to contribute to hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer in rats in the early 90's.

I don't know how sensitive animals can be to it, but I would avoid it. I would also avoid red 40 as it is also reported to cause alot of allergy problems in humans.

Yeah, the pink poo is likely caused by the coloring.

I'm not sure about cats, but I now in birds that long term ingestion of food coloring can slowly destroy the liver.

I've always fed uncolored bird pellets, but occasionally, when the petstore in out of the natural stuff, I have to buy the same brand with the colorings, it does make for techincolor poos.

Originally Posted by Arlyn

I have to buy the same brand with the colorings, it does make for techincolor poos.

Click to expand...

that made me giggle, I had this mental image of the newspaper covered with blue, pink, green, etc poos.

btw, here's some information on commonly used food colorings and side effects that have been noted

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/200...oloring-world/

here's some more information on other additives that are used in human food, which might also be found in pet food (I haven't seen it, but I feed pretty much nutro only for lack of better quality here, and don't read the cheaper brand's labels)

http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/0...e_aware_of.htm

it is the food coloring... IMHO AVOID food colorings the risk are too great...many grocery brands DO NOT have them ...