Dear Silo, you probably know Kraft Dinner — the easy-to-make, tasty, comfort food in the blue box. It’s one of the most popular grocery items in Canada — some actually call it Canada’s national dish.

But there’s a troubling reason why Kraft Dinner is bright orange when it’s ready to eat. Kraft uses chemical colouring that serves no purpose for flavoring or nutrition. This chemical — labelled as Tartrazine or Yellow 5 — has been linked by experts to serious health issues like asthma, skin rashes, and hyperactivity in children.

And while those chemicals are not used in other countries, Kraft Dinner sold in Canada and the United States still includes it just to make the food a brighter colour.

Keeping this chemical in KD is an unnecessary potential risk. That’s why we, Vani and Lisa, started a petition on Change.org demanding that Kraft remove Yellow 5, an unnecessary ingredient, from Kraft Dinner immediately. Click here to sign our petition.

We are two women who work to educate others about the benefits of eating real food and avoiding unnecessary chemicals. Although we stopped buying Kraft Dinner when we found about the risks of artificial colouring, we know that it’s a staple for millions of families around the world — many of whom can’t afford to buy other, more expensive products.

We’re asking that Kraft remove this chemical from KD because it can eliminate a potential health hazard while not changing the taste of the food at all. Kraft doesn’t use these chemicals in the United Kingdom due to wide health concerns, so we know it’s possible to do the same in the Canada. And as one of the largest food companies in the world, Kraft could set a precedent for other companies to do the same.

Petitions on Change.org have forced companies to remove ingredients before — including huge companies like Gatorade, Starbucks, and Tide — and we think we can add Kraft to that list with our petition.

Click here to sign our petition asking Kraft to remove Yellow 5 from Kraft Dinner sold in the Canada. If they can do it for other countries, they can do it here.

Eat well,

Vani Hari and Lisa Leake

Supplemental-  Material Safety Data Sheet (United States) for Tartrazine / Yellow 5  from sciencelab.com  In Canada, WHMIS categorizes Tartrazine as Class D2B which is TOXIC