Foods

Dyes in sauces, dressings and pickles

The color in sweet relish, yellow pickles and some dressings is often a dye. Yellow 5 is far ahead of the others in this category.

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Sauces, dressings and pickles: products whose label lists a tracked dye or additive

3,271 of 42,515

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USDA FoodData Central, Branded Foods, release of 2026-10-29. The label date is when the record was submitted: recipes change, so check the package in your hand.

Dressings, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, barbecue and cheese sauces, dips, salsa, pickles, olives, relish and jams make 42,515 products in the data, and 8% name a tracked substance. Unlike every other category, Yellow 5 dominates, at 6%, while Red 40 and Blue 1 are each near 1%. The yellow comes mainly from sweet relish and pickle chips, where Yellow 5 together with Blue 1 gives the green, and from some cheese sauces; mustard is usually colored with turmeric, which is not covered. Red 40 appears in some barbecue sauces, French dressings and maraschino-style toppings. Because a food containing Yellow 5 must name it under 21 CFR 74.705, relish and pickle labels are reliable on this point. In schools, condiments served with meals fall under the school rules like any other food served.

How common is this ingredient in a food category?

Sauces, dressings and pickles whose label lists Red 40

1.4%

Products listing it595
Products in the category42,515

USDA FoodData Central, Branded Foods; labels were submitted over several years and recipes change.

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Condiment packets at school

The small packets of relish or dressing handed out with school meals are part of what a school serves, so a state rule on meals reaches them. The Yellow 5 page gives the federal labeling rule and the list of states that name it.

What the labels list, substance by substance

42,515 products, 42,475 with an ingredient list; USDA FoodData Central, Branded Foods, release of October 29, 2026.
SubstanceProductsShare of the category
Red 405951.4%
Red 3860.2%
Yellow 52,3805.6%
Yellow 64081.0%
Blue 15841.4%
Blue 2280.1%
Green 320.0%
BVO10.0%
Potassium bromate60.0%
Propylparaben30.0%
Titanium dioxide2990.7%
BHA550.1%

Questions people ask

How many sauces, dressings and pickles products were counted, and how recent are their labels?

42,515 products, one per barcode, from the USDA FoodData Central Branded Foods release of October 29, 2026. 3,271 of them list at least one of the 14 substances tracked here. Most labels in the data set were filed in 2021 to 2023, so recipes may have changed since.

Which dye is listed most often in sauces, dressings and pickles?

Yellow 5, on 2,380 labels or 5.6% of the category, followed by Red 40 (595) and Blue 1 (584). A product often lists several at once, so the counts overlap. The table on this page gives every tracked substance. Counts come from the labels, not from tests of the products themselves.

Are sauces, dressings and pickles with these dyes legal to sell?

Yes, in stores, except for substances whose federal date has passed, such as BVO, or will pass, such as Red 3 on January 15, 2027, and from January 1, 2027 for the four substances of California's Food Safety Act in that state. School rules in several states limit what schools serve or sell, not what stores sell.

Check next

Foods with Red 40

Search US products whose label lists Red 40 or another tracked dye, by category, from USDA FoodData Central, with each label's date.

Ingredient list checker

Paste an ingredient list: every tracked dye or additive found, by FD&C name, lake, E or INS number, with its status in your state.

Dye laws by state

Pick a state and a dye or additive: the FDA rule, every state law that names it, and the date each one starts.

Natural food colors

The colors exempt from certification that replace synthetic dyes, the new ones the FDA approved since 2025, and two still on hold.

Laws and official pages behind this page

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Independent publisher of a state-by-state tracker of food dye and additive laws in the United States, with an ingredient-list checker built on USDA FoodData Central

Laws and FDA orders checked on · Editorial policy · Contact

Food dye and additive rules 2026, read in each state law and in the Federal Register, last checked on