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A nonprofit group is calling for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban artificial caramel coloring used in Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other foods because animal tests suggest the additive is contaminated with two cancer-causing chemicals.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) filed a regulatory petition to the FDA on Wednesday, asking for them to ban the use of the artificial brown coloring, which contains two chemicals, 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole (2-MI and 4-MI also referred to as 2-MEI and 4-MEI), that government-led studies have shown caused liver, lung, leukemia, and thyroid cancer in lab mice and rats.

CSPI executive director Dr Michael F Jacobson told the media that:

"Carcinogenic colorings have no place in the food supply, especially considering that their only function is a cosmetic one."

He urged the FDA to "act quickly to revoke its approval of caramel colorings made with ammonia".

The CSPI say the artificial caramel coloring used in the beverage and food industry is "quite different to real caramel" and is not made in the same way as one might make it at home, by melting sugar in a saucepan.

They say manufacturers make the artificial brown coloring by reacting sugars with ammonia and sulfites under high temperature and pressure, and this leads to the formation of the two chemicals.

The current federal regulations allow four types of caramel coloring: two of which are made with ammonia. It is these two that the CSPI want the FDA to ban. One is known as Caramel III and the other as Caramel IV.

Caramel III is made with ammonia but not sulfites, this is used to color beer, soy sauce, and other foods. Caramel IV is made with ammonia and sulfites and is used to color colas and other dark soft drinks.

To make their case the CSPI say chemicals that cause cancer in animals are considered to be potentially carcinogenic to humans and cite animal studies conducted by the National Toxicology Program, a division of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, that showed there is "clear evidence" that 2-MI and 4-MI cause cancer in animals.

They say researchers at the University of California, Davis, found significant levels of 4-MI in five brands of cola.

Some of the scientists who worked at the National Toxicology Program are among the five experts on causes of cancer in animals who have joined with the CSPI on calling for the FDA to ban the use of artificial caramel made with ammonia.

They wrote a letter to Dr Margaret Hamburg Commissioner for Food and Drugs, in which they said:

"The American public should not be exposed to any cancer risk whatsoever as a result of consuming such chemicals, especially when they serve a non-essential, cosmetic purpose."