Synthetic surprise
At the height of the industrial revolution, the food industry was transformed thanks to an accidental discovery by William Henry Perkin, who is credited with creating the first artificial colour in 1856 while trying to develop a treatment for malaria using quinine.
The purple dye, which he called mauveine, was cheaper and more stable than natural pigments and was readily embraced by the food and textile industries.
According to the Royal Society of Chemistry, in the 50 years following Perkin’s discovery around 2000 artificial colours were developed.