Food Color and Science Projects

Can a brightly colored packet of M&Ms become the base of a science project? Yes it can, because such candy is made from food colors and dyes. The yellow, red, and green candy all have been made by using different food dyes. These edible dyes are different from the paints that you use for coloring, but the principle is the same. You are painting the food.

In fact many artificial food colors are considered unhealthy. This is one more reason why eating too much colored candy may be bad for you. The sugar levels in such food are high too. They may give you a short lived energy boost, but over all they are bad for your metabolism. In fact some food dyes are even thought to be carcinogenic.

“Carcinogenic” means that these could cause cancer. However there is no need to panic just because you ate a packet or two of M&Ms this week. These dyes are harmful only if eaten in large quantities. As they are difficult for the human body to digest and takes time for them to be pushed out of the system.

Do you think I’m making all this up to scare you off candy? Not really. Dyes can be studied very easily. In fact there are some simple experiments that you can conduct at home using your packet of colored candy.  Learn more about Candy and Chromatography here. Maybe this will help you understand the chemicals that we put into our body are not always healthy.