Are food colorings or dyes hermit crab safe

[Crabby Abby]

Hey guys,While tooling Crab Street Journal I happened upon this article by Ladybug and thought I would share it. Estes, btw is a color specialist company that "has offered only the highest grade of quality decorative aggregates (aggregates are products or materials for the construction of them) for aquariums, construction and crafts. [Their] product lines include brand names such as Estes Ultrastone, Wilmar Spectrastone, Perma Color Surface Aggregates, Magic Sand and Dec Roc." While the focus of Ladybug's research revolves around colored sand, I would question the safety of dyed shells as well as was a recent topic here at LHC."ladybug15057 wroteAs I have mentioned, I was told by Estes Company that the coloring they used was a “Company Secret”.Today I had called T-Rex, (the makers of Calci sand), and was told the same thing it was a company secret, but was assured that the coloring they used was “FDA natural food colorants“. This I already had read about their product:http://www.reptilesource.com/?item|TR81730 T-Rex Calci-Sand Substrate, (Glow in the Dark)All colors are created with FDA approved natural food colorants. Glow in the Dark Calci-Sand Available!This in itself had me do a search on the “FDA approved natural food colorants” to see just what the approved colorants were. Unfortunately the only information I found was in regards to effects or information on humans. Much of the information is scary for humans, and yet Hermit Crabs are never subjected to this in their natural home. Who knows what effect, if any, it would have on them?http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/colorfac.html U. S. Food and Drug AdministrationFDA/IFIC* Brochure: January 1993What is a Color Additive?Technically, a color additive is any dye, pigment or substance that can impart color when added or applied to a food, drug, cosmetic or to the human body.Certifiable color additives are manmade, with each batch being tested by manufacturer and FDA.There are nine certified colors approved for use in food in the United States. One example is FD&C Yellow No.6, which is used in cereals, bakery goods, snack foods and other foods.Color additives that are exempt from certification include pigments derived from natural sources such as vegetables, minerals or animals, and man-made counterparts of natural derivatives.What Are Dyes and Lakes?Certifiable color additives are available for use in food as either "dyes" or "lakes." Dyes dissolve in water and are manufactured as powders, granules, liquids or other special purpose forms. They can be used in beverages, dry mixes, baked goods, confections, dairy products, pet foods and a variety of other products.Lakes are the water insoluble form of the dye. Lakes are more stable than dyes and are ideal for coloring products containing fats and oils or items lacking sufficient moisture to dissolve dyes. Typical uses include coated tablets, cake and donut mixes, hard candies and chewing gums.How Are Color Additives Approved for Use in Foods?In deciding whether a color additive should be approved, the agency considers the composition and properties of the substance, the amount likely to be consumed, its probable long-term effects and various safety factors. Absolute safety of any substance can never be proven. Therefore, FDA must determine if there is a reasonable certainty of no harm from the color additive under its proposed conditions of use.I have found a chart that shows what many of the colorings are used in, and for what purposes:(Content last updated by emw/axl/msl on 2006-MAR-10Hypertext updated by kwg/dms/cjm/msl/emw on 2006-MAR-15)http://www.foodsafety.gov/~dms/opa-col2.html As of April 2006, this guide has been updated, if you scroll through you will see many food colorings that either say to avoid due to further testing needing to be done, or to use caution:Alphabetical Listing of Additiveshttp://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm How does glow-in-the-dark stuff work?http://science.howstuffworks.com/question388.htm All glow-in-the-dark products contain phosphors. A phosphor is a substance that radiates visible light after being energized.http://ask.yahoo.com/20030506.html The knowledgeable staff at How Stuff Works notes that most glow-in-the-dark toys contain either zinc sulfide or strontium aluminate, because these substances have relatively long phosphor persistence (i.e., they glow longer)Safety (MSDS) data for phosphorus, redhttp://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/PH/phosphorus_red.html Safety (MSDS) data for phosphorus, whitehttp://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/PH/phosphorus_white.html MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEETPRODUCT: PHOSPHORUS PENTASULPHIDEhttp://www.starchemicals.com/msds_pp.htm SECTION 3 HAZARDS IDENTIFICATIONEnvironment:Very toxic to aquatic organismsZinc sulfideFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_sulfidestrontium aluminate MSDS3 MSDS Reports came up:ST184-5KG SODIUM ALUMINATE TGST184-500G SODIUM ALUMINATE TGST184-25KG SODIUM ALUMINATE TGhttp://www.chemsupply.com.au/files/catalog/1CHGG.pdf With this at the end of the group: (but no MSDS report)ST220-20L SODIUM ALUMINATE SOLNI am not a scientist by any means, but just from this information and other info I have read while finding the above I would strongly recommend not to use a colored substrate and certainly never a glow in the dark one for hermit crabs."