Food Color Additives Applications in Food Products, and Related Health Hazards

Food Color Additives Applications in Food Products, and 

Related Health Hazards

Seham. E. Zahran^*; Mona F. Eltalawy^* and  Nabila .I. El Sheikh^*  

*Food hygiene Department, Animal Health Research Institute. Tanta Lab (AHRI )

Agriculture Research Center (ARC), Egypt.

ABSTRACT

Food coloring pigments are typically unstable and change throughout processing, every dye or pigments applied to food has an impact on its  organoleptic qualities which directly  influence customer acceptance and food choice . A lot of food types have color additives, they are crucial because they act as a sort of code that helps us recognize items at a glance. Color additives are used by manufacturers to provide, their products "added value" while concealing natural loss caused by exposure to light, air and temperature. Synthetic food coloring has become increasing popular as an addition in place of natural food coloring, with the aim of achieving certain effect such as improved appearance, intensity, color stability and consistency synthetic food colors have a number of commercially significant advantages over natural ones, including affordability resistance to light fluctuations and PH. The most accurate approach for determining color additives in meat and dairy products are to use High Performance Liquid Chromatography ( HPLC ) methodology .Because of their possible risks, some synthetic colorants are being replaced with ones derived from natural sources ,there have been many documented toxicities and adverse consequences, particularly when ingested in excess .As a result  the Food Organization and World Health Organization have regularly determined and assessed the safety data for each synthetic food additives ,there should be stringent legal restrictions on the use of artificial colorant as food additives.

INTRODUCTION

Any ingredient that gives food or drinks color added is referred to a food color additive. Both home and professional food preparation process use food coloring. Food colorants are chemical compounds used in food technology that helps food taste better, restore colors lost during preparation, and enhance visual appeal. (Barrows and colleagues, 2009; Coultate and Blackburn, 2018). Color is a crucial component of food and beverages, and modern customer^’s consider visual aspects while choosing food products. In order to attain specific qualities, such enhance appearance, high color intensity, increased color stability and color uniformity, synthetic food coloring has been increasing popular as an additive to replace natural color in recent years (Yang et al. 2011; Xing et al. 2012).

Synthetic food coloring has a number of economically significant advantages over natural coloring, including low cost, great color stability, and resilience to light and PH.

Chemicals used as artificial food coloring is derived from coal tar compounds, and majority of them have an azo group. The market^’s assortment of meals and drinks may include both an excessive amount of approved synthetic colors and some prohibited synthetic colors. Several investigations have verified that artificial food coloring is a primary cause of food intoxication and can result in serious health issue .

Table 1 lists a number of food additives that were once widely used but are now prohibited due to evidence of their long -and medium-term toxicity, high incidence of potential health problems, and side effects (Tripathi et al. 2007). Like other food coloring is subjected to various laws that govern the reporting categories of food products, maximum quantities that can be used, chemical characterization, and purity (Commission Regulation (EU) No. 1129/2011.and Commission Regulation (EU) No. 2020/771).

Consequently. colorants are only allowed to be used if they fall into one of three categories having a daily intake that is defined as acceptable, or being allowed to be used only in certain circumstance.

In addition, a code consisting of the letter E (For Europe) and three or four digits is assigned to each food ingredient. The arrangement of numbers scheme adheres to the Codex Alimentarius Committee's determination of the International Numbering System (INS). Food coloring can come from natural sources, synthetic sources or both. (Lidon and Silvestre 2010)

The usage of synthetic colorants has been linked to health hazards, including behavioral, allergy and neurocognitive impacts. In contrast, naturally derived colorants appear to offer a relatively high quality and effective contribution as health promoter. (Silva et al. 2022)

Where do food colors come from?

Food coloring has been used for as long as human have existed. Natural colors like paprika, saffron, and turmeric were added to food to enhance its flavor and appearance, according to Egyptian papyri from 1500BC (Ulrike and Arlt , 2011). William Henry Perkin created the first artificial organic color, mauve in 1856.

Soon after, comparable dyes were developed and were widely used to tint medications, food and cosmetic. These dyes were referred to as “coal tar colors” because they were initially made from leftovers from the processing of coal. We have used five times as many foods color additive since 1955.

Why do manufacturers use food color additives?

Color additives are used by manufacturers to restore lost color caused by exposure to light, air,or temperature changes, as well as to give 

their products a "added value."