Anoverall picture of food colours used in different foods

ABSTRACT

The world market for food colors is expanding at about 10% annually. Some coloring matters used in food can be considered as health hazards, especially if administered in large doses. Therefore, legal control over the use of food colors is essential. This is the best accomplished through the use of a permitted list which effectively prevents the addition of any new substances to foods until an adequate basis for judgment of their freedom from health hazard had been established, in addition to improved laboratory analysis of the quantity of color used in food. The results of the present study revealed that 130 samples of colored foods out of 256 samples examined [50.78%] contained no artificial colors and were considered natural. In the mean time, all the detected artificial water soluble colors were according to the permissible list. Of the food classes analyzed, no artificial colors were detected in canned juices, jams, tomato paste, pickling and yogurt. However, 10 samples of ice cream out of 28 examined contained artificial colors, although it is prohibited to add artificial color to this class of food. In case of confectionary, 54 out of 78 samples examined contained permissible artificial colors, and tartrazine was the most prevalent color detected in this class of food, which is mostly consumed by children