Short answer
Yes. Red 40 (Allura Red, E129), Yellow 5 (tartrazine, E102), Yellow 6 and Blue 1 are synthetic dyes made from petroleum-based chemicals, not from pigs or insects, so they are halal. The red colouring that comes from insects is carmine (E120), which is a separate question.
Synthetic and plant-based colours are halal by default. Only a colour from a haram source, or one dissolved in a haram carrier, needs checking; in the Hanafi school carmine from insects is not eaten.
The four schools agree on this.
Explanation
Many people hear that a food dye comes from bugs or pork and start to worry about every coloured sweet. The common synthetic dyes are made in factories from petroleum-derived compounds. They have nothing to do with animals.
- Red 40, Allura Red (E129): synthetic. Halal.
- Yellow 5, tartrazine (E102), and Yellow 6, Sunset Yellow (E110): synthetic. Halal.
- Blue 1 (E133) and Blue 2 (E132): synthetic. Halal.
- Caramel colour (E150), beetroot red, paprika, annatto, turmeric, spirulina: from plants or sugar. Halal.
- Carmine or cochineal (E120), also called natural red 4: made from crushed insects. Not eaten in the Hanafi school (see carmine).
The carrier can matter more than the colour. Some liquid colourings and cake-decorating products use alcohol or glycerin as a solvent. The ruling on small amounts of non-grape alcohol is in ethanol in food, and glycerin has its own answer in glycerin.
Some of these dyes carry a warning label in Europe about children's attention and activity, and some parents choose to limit them. That is a health choice. In fiqh terms the synthetic dyes themselves are halal, and the four schools agree that a colour made from plants or minerals is permitted.
The evidence
Quran, Surah Al-Baqara 2:168
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ كُلُوا۟ مِمَّا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ حَلَٰلًۭا طَيِّبًۭا وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا۟ خُطُوَٰتِ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنِ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّۭ مُّبِينٌ ﴿١٦٨﴾
O mankind, eat from whatever is on earth [that is] lawful and good and do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Indeed, he is to you a clear enemy.
Food is lawful by default when it is good and wholesome.
Where the ruling is recorded
- Radd al-Muhtar (Ibn Abidin), Kitab al-Hazr wa al-Ibaha. Things are permitted by default unless evidence shows otherwise.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.