FD&C Yellow 6 Guide

Sunset Yellow FCF (also known as Orange Yellow S, FD&C Yellow 6 or C.I. 15985) is a colourant that may be added to foods to induce a colour change[citation needed]. It is denoted by E Number E110[citation needed], and has the capacity for inducing an allergic reaction[citation needed].

It is a synthetic coal tar and azo yellow dye useful in fermented foods which must be heat treated. It may be found in orange squash, orange jelly, marzipan, Swiss roll, Irn-Bru, apricot jam, citrus marmalade, lemon curd, sweets, hot chocolate mix and packet soups, trifle mix, breadcrumbs and cheese sauce mix and soft drinks. Specifically it can be found in the capsules of DayQuil (in high concentrations), some extra strength Tylenol, Astro peach yogurt (potentially others), fortune cookies, some red sauces, certain pound cakes, snack chips and other yellow, orange, and red food products.

Sunset Yellow is often used in conjunction with E123, Amaranth, in order to produce a brown colouring in both chocolates and caramel[citation needed].

At high concentrations, Sunset Yellow in solution with water undergoes a phase change from an isotropic liquid to a nematic liquid crystal. This occurs between 0.8 M and 0.9 M at room temperature....