QDRO
← Ingredients

Excipients · CI 42090, CI 16035, CI 19140, CI 45430

Synthetic Dyes

Blue gel, pink stripe, mint-green color. A pretty toothpaste sells better. But dyes do not treat anything — and some of them raise safety questions.

QDRO position

We avoid it

Avoided in QDRO. Dyes carry no oral health benefit; some synthetic azo dyes require a warning label in the EU, and the FDA revoked Red 3 in 2025.

Synthetic Dyes

The color of a toothpaste is a marketing decision, not a chemical one. Blue gel "refreshes," white paste "whitens," a pink stripe is "for the gums" — all of this works on perception, not on the teeth. Color itself performs no useful function in the mouth.

What Substances We Are Talking About

By "synthetic dyes" people usually mean a group of artificial pigments identified by CI (Colour Index) numbers:

  • CI 42090 (FD&C Blue No. 1, Brilliant Blue) — the most common dye in gel toothpastes.
  • CI 16035 (FD&C Red No. 40, Allura Red) — red and pink shades.
  • CI 19140 (Tartrazine, E102) — a yellow azo dye.
  • CI 45430 (Erythrosine, FD&C Red No. 3) — a cherry-pink color.

Unlike titanium dioxide, which at least gives toothpaste a white appearance as a pigment, these dyes have no technological justification beyond the decorative.

What the Concerns Are

The main argument is simple: zero benefit at non-zero risk. Why introduce into a product that contacts the mucosa daily a substance that treats nothing?

For some azo dyes there are also direct regulatory questions. In the European Union, several of them (Tartrazine E102, Sunset Yellow E110, Allura Red E129, and others) are required under Regulation 1333/2008 to carry a warning on the label:

"May have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children."

This is a consequence of the so-called "Southampton study" on the link between azo dyes and hyperactivity in children. And in January 2025 the FDA revoked the authorization for the dye Red 3 (erythrosine) in food products, based on data on carcinogenicity in animals.

What to Use Instead

The best answer is no dye at all. A toothpaste does not have to be colored to work well. The natural color of the formula (from white to beige, depending on the abrasive and active components) is the norm, not a flaw.

QDRO works from the principle that "every component does work for oral health." A decorative pigment does not meet this: it does not clean, does not remineralize, does not protect the gums. That is why there are no synthetic dyes in our formulas.