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Yellow No. 6 is tested on animals. That automatically disqualifies any food products from being vegan for some, even if the animal was treated humanely and was not intentionally harmed. Despite this, Yellow No. 6 is being phased out in the U.S.A. by 2026.
Yellow No. 6 was initially made from coal and is now made from petroleum. Neither of these have been found to contain animal products even though petroleum can contain petrified fossils. Coal can also be composed predominantly of plant carbon with some other mineral deposits. Based on the molecular composition, it is vegan or vegan safe.
However, yellow no. 6 is given to lab rats and rodents to ingest. The chemical can be traced in the urine which is collected at specified intervals when available. This chemical can be detected in the lab animals bio markers. After metabolizing, the urine may contain sulfanilic acid and naphthalenesulfonic acid (amino-naphithol) which can be used to detect exposure to the chemical. After ingestion, the lab animal removes nearly 38% of the sulfanilic dose and 8.5% of the amino-naphithol dose. The chemical is considered a dye and is approved by the FDA. The criteria is that the dye must by completely harmless and can not cause even one case of cancer. While Congress has loosed these standards, Yellow No. 6 does not induce tumors even if it may cause some allergic reactions.
The chemical has been found to cause hyperactivity in children and there are studies on retention of the chemical and any adverse effects. Overall food dyes are tested in batches and even though they don't contain animal products, testing for human safety needs to be done according to IRB standards. If there is not an available computer model, alternative testing methods are limited. Reducing the amount of harm to an animal is part of the IRB standards. This is part of ongoing testing and analysis regarding the use of animals in testing for human safety and determining whether harm to an animal has been adequately reduced in various types of government approval processes.