Think again. Food colourings not actually based on coal tar Coal tar, the black viscous liquid left over when coal is cooked to make coke, became the source for scientific experimentation around ...

THE numerous products obtained from coal-tar are ever increasing in importance, not so much, perhaps, because of the isolation of new substances or new derivatives of the older materials ...

and having the great advantage over it of not being destroyed by light. These colors, for there are many of them, have been prepared from the alkalies of coal tar by Messr3. W. Perkins and A.