Inflammatory bowel disease: The popular food dye Allura Red can trigger Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis

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A new “alarming” study shows that a popular food dye targeted at children can lead to inflammatory bowel disease.

Allura Red conditioner is used to add color and texture to desserts, soft drinks, dairy products, and cereals, often with the aim of appealing to children.

But new animal tests revealed that the dye disrupts the way the intestinal barrier works, harming gut health, encouraging inflammation, and potentially causing inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

McMaster University researchers found that by disrupting the gut barrier, Allura Red AC increases the amount of serotonin produced.

Doing so changes the composition of the gut microbiota and makes people more susceptible to colitis.

Writing in an article in Nature Communications, Professor Waliol Khan, from McMaster University in Canada, said the alarming findings represent an important advance in public health.

The study’s senior author said: “This study demonstrates the significant adverse effects of Allura Red on gut health and identifies gut serotonin as a critical factor mediating these effects.

These findings have an important impact in the prevention and management of IBD.

“What we found is startling and concerning, because this common synthetic food dye is a potential food trigger for IBD.

This research is an important advance in alerting the public to the potential harms of food dyes that we consume every day.

“The literature suggests that consumption of Allura Red also affects certain allergies, immune disorders, and behavioral problems in children, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.”

Professor Khan said that inflammatory bowel diseases are serious chronic inflammatory conditions of the intestines, affecting millions of people worldwide.

The exact causes of the diseases are not fully understood, but studies suggest that they can be triggered by dysregulated immune responses, genetic factors, imbalances of the gut microbiota and environmental factors.

In recent years, significant progress has been made in defining how genes are affected by inflammatory bowel diseases and in understanding the role of the immune system and host microbes.

However, Professor Khan said research has fallen behind when it comes to investigating environmental risk factors.

Environmental triggers include typical Western diets, which consist of processed fats, red and processed meats, sugar, and a lack of fiber.

Such a diet also includes large amounts of additives and dyes, he added, and the study findings warrant further exploration of the relationship between food dyes and IBD.

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