Average daily intake of artificially food color additives by school children in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Food safety is related to nutritional risk in children. This study is to determine the types of artificial food color additives (AFCAs) daily intake by school children aged 6 to 17 years for ten AFCAs. Sunset Yellow (E110), Tartrazine (E102), Carmoisine (E122), Brilliant Blue (E133), Allura Red (E129), Black PN (E151), Indigo Carmine (E132), and Fast Green (E143) were identified using 24 h food consumption questionnaire, including the two unapproved AFCAs, Red 2G (E128) and Erythrosine (E127) in 839 food products. These food products are distributed into nine categories, containing juices and drinks, ice cream, cakes, jelly, chocolates, candy, chips, biscuits, and chewing gum. Results showed that the artificial food colors, Carmoisine (32.3 %) and Sunset Yellow (30.1 %) were the most highly consumed AFCAs by school children, whereas Erythrosine (0.05 %) was consumed the least. Therefore, Sunset Yellow was highly consumed (30.1 %) and detected in high amounts by high performance liquid chromatography, (HPLC) 34.2 %. The average daily intake (ADI) of AFCAs decreased with age to varying degrees in both sexes. In comparison to the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization, acceptable daily intakes, most permitted colors exceeded their acceptable daily intakes (ADIs) in the 6–11 years of age groups, and most permitted colors were within the recommended ADIs in the 12–17 years of age group. The average daily intake of AFCAs by school children decreased with age. Therefore, further studies are required to gain information about the possible negative health effects of high intake of these AFCAs on the test population.