Abstract
There are very few studies evaluating the exposure of the general population to food colours. This study aimed to estimate the Theoretical Maximum Daily Intake (TMDI) by the Brazilian population of four rather seldom-used synthetic food colours: Azorubine, Erythrosine, Indigotine, and Ponceau 4R. The study was conducted using data from the two most recent National Household Budget Surveys (carried out in 2008/2009 and 2017/2018). The study covered the country’s population, sorted into the following groups: gender, geographic region, and age (among people older than 10 years). The results show that the mean TMDI (mg/day) does not exceed the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) in any population group for any of the food colours. The highest values found were 12.5% of the ADI for Erythrosine in 2008/2009 and 4% in 2017/2018. A decrease in the mean TMDI was observed for all food colours comparing 2008/2009 and 2017/2018. Intake increases with decreasing age, adolescents being the group with the highest mean TMDI. When considering the prevalence of food consumption instead of the mean consumption, TMDI gets closer to the ADI, reaching 79% of the ADI of Erythrosine for adolescent females. The intake of these food colours proved to be within the recommended levels.
Highlights
During food and beverage processing, the addition of food colours is a common practice to enhance the sensory attributes of the final products
The data were correlated with the results from the 2008/2009 and 2017/2018 Household Budget Surveys (HBS) (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, 2010, 2020) to estimate the Theoretical Maximum Daily Intake (TMDI) of each artificial food colour, using the maximum concentration allowed by Brazilian legislation (Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária, 2021)
The manual published by the Codex Alimentarius Committee in 2014 suggests that all food products which contain food additives permitted by legislation (Joint FAO/World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Food Additives, 2014) should be considered for the calculation of TMDI
Summary
During food and beverage processing, the addition of food colours is a common practice to enhance the sensory attributes of the final products. In order to evaluate the possible effects that food additives can have on health, it is important to have data on exposure to these substances. There are very few studies evaluating the exposure of the general population to food additives in Brazil, where the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) is responsible for regulation of the use of food additives such as dyes and allows the use of 14 synthetic dyes. In a study carried out on foods for children in Brazil, it was observed, from data on the presence of food colours in these food products, that Azorubine (INS 122), Erythrosine (INS 127), Indigotine (INS 132), and Ponceau 4R (INS 124) had a similar, relatively low frequency of use (Lorenzoni et al, 2012). There are no data in the literature on exposure of the Brazilian population to these dyes
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