Butter yellow was synthesized by Peter Griess in the 1860s at the Royal College of Chemistry in London. The dye was used to dye butter in Germany and other parts of the world during the latter half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th before being phased out in the 1930s and 40s. It was in the 1930s that research led by Riojun Kinosita showed the link between several azo dyes and cancer, linking butter yellow to liver cancer in rats after two to three months exposure. In 1939, the International Congress for Cancer Research issued a recommendation for the banning of cancer-causing food dyes (including butter yellow) from food production.
In 2014, dried tofu products (a.k.a. dougan 豆乾) from Taiwan were found to have been adulterated with methyl yellow, used as a coloring agent.