Why on ingredients labels are colors identified with numbers, such as yellow 2 or blue 1 etc

Question

Why on ingredients labels are colors identified with numbers, such as yellow 2 or blue 1 etc

In: 3

Answer 1

Dyes and color additives are regulated by organizations such as the FDA. In order to distinguish between the many different color additives, it was important to add numbers to distinguish them from each other. There isn’t only one kind of red dye, so numbers and descriptive names are used to distinguish between them.

You can find the list of approved uses of dyes [here](https://www.fda.gov/industry/color-additive-inventories/color-additive-status-list) for the FDA.