Food Dye May Have Induced Deaths

A widely used blue food dye may have contributed to the deaths of three critically ill patients after it was used to color the liquid food pumped into their stomachs, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine. The three had eaten food with FD&C; blue dye No. 1 and their skin and blood turned a bluish-green hours before they died, said Dr. James Maloney of the Medical College of Wisconsin. The dye, made from coal tar, is routinely added to the liquid to help doctors see if any food is escaping from the stomach. In healthy people, the dye never leaves the digestive tract.