why does bread need red?

Red #40 that is. Why? I don't get it. It was a sad day when my friend told me that those nice brown loaves of bread you get at restaurants and steak houses have red #40 in them. Maybe they have to make up for bleaching the flour first so it makes perfect sense to add a little petroleum based dye to make up for what should be there but isn't.

But yesterday I made another startling discovery. I'm checking more closely for preservatives in foods and trying to eliminate those as much as possible. So I picked up a refrigerated tube of crescent rolls, thinking I would just see how much extra stuff is in there. It jumped right off the label at me: red #40 and yellow #5. What?!! When did they start putting that in there? I've checked those before and there wasn't any red 40 #. I know they were OK when I served them last Thanksgiving. Why do they suddenly need food coloring now? I wish there was a way to encourage these companies to make foods healthier instead of more toxic. Maybe I better start sending emails again.