The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 letter word ANNATTO
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
A
N
N
A
T
T
O
More clues leading to the result ANNATTO
- Girl brought up too much dye
- Female, going back and forth, put back over-the-top food colouring
- Dye — an international organisation consumes tons
- Uncovered, got tan, nastily coming up orangey colour
- A military alliance to save tons of tree
- Article on a military alliance trapping a model with an orange-red dye
- No charge for annotation made on the orange food dye
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "food colouring" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case food colouring = annatto.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does ANNATTO mean?
ANNATTO noun- A tropical American evergreen shrub, Bixa orellana; the lipstick tree; the fruit of the tree.
- The seed of this tree used as a colouring or in Latin American cooking.
- An orange-red dye obtained from this seed.