> > Incidentally, the dyes themselves are known as azo dye derivatives, which were once made from coal tar, but now from petroleum. They are frequently used in the food, cosmetics, and clothing industries. However -- even if we used only food colorants and preservatives derived from natural sources (like plants, animals), these 'natural' chemicals would not be necessarily safer or healthier.

Darn right. I learned this lesson the hard way when I bought a bag of "all-natural" licorice from a health shop, only to notice that the bag seemed to list a surprising amount of numbers as ingredients. A quick check against an additive decoder (bought, ironically enough, from the same shop) revealed that all of these numbered ingredients had been either banned or considered highly suspicious in Europe and/or the USA, and one of them (the ingredient which gives licorice that yummy blackgreen colouring) is also used as an aquatic weedkiller.

As stated, of course, all five ingredients were "all natural". It didn't say "healthy", it just said "all natural".

There are a lot of things produced entirely by nature which you don't want to mess with.

Brunnen-"resisting the impulse to name names as an example of that last line"G