Banned food colours in India, the non-permitted list

'Banned food colours in India' is one of the most-searched phrases in the food-safety cluster, and the answer is simpler than the searcher expects: India works from a short permitted list, and everything else is banned. Regulation 3.1.2 of the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011 names eight synthetic colours, ponceau 4R, carmoisine, erythrosine, tartrazine, sunset yellow FCF, indigo carmine, brilliant blue FCF and fast green FCF, and the following regulations limit their use to named foods at a maximum level. No other synthetic colour may be used in any food.

The prohibited colours that matter in practice are the ones adulterators reach for. Metanil yellow in turmeric and pulses, Rhodamine B in cotton candy, chilli powder and gobi manchurian, Sudan dyes in chilli and curry powders, malachite green on peas and chillies, auramine in sweets and Orange II in snacks account for most enforcement findings. The state bans on Rhodamine B in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in 2024 gave the dye a public profile, but the national prohibition already covered it.

A second group is permitted elsewhere but not in India: amaranth, Red 2G and Brown HT, familiar from older European lists, and the American Red 40. The reverse is also true in places, which is why 'banned in India, legal in the US' lists exist. Rhodamine B, metanil yellow and the Sudan dyes each have their own page here.