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Exposure assessment to synthetic food colours of a selected population in Hyderabad, India

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 21; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/02652030410001668772

1464-5122

Pratima Rao, Ramesh V. Bhat, R. V. Sudershan, T. Prasanna Krishna, Nithish Naidu,

Advanced Chemical Sensor Technologies

Abstract An exposure assessment of synthetic food colours was carried out among 1–5- and 6–18-year-old individuals by the food frequency method. Children had an intake of solid food consumption in the range 2–465 g day–1 and liquid food consumption in the range 25–840 ml day–1 with added colours. Among the eight permitted colours in India, six were consumed by the subjects of the study. The intakes of some subjects exceeded the acceptable daily intake for colours such as tartrazine, sunset yellow and erythrosine, which is 7.5, 2.5 and 0.1 mg kg–1 body weight, respectively. Therefore, a uniform permissible limit of 100 mg kg–1 prescribed under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act in India for all foods is not justified. The limits need to be revised according to the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which permits different maximum levels of additives to various food categories based on both the extent of consumption and the technological justification for its use. Keywords: exposure assessmentfood colourstartrazinesunset yellowerythrosineacceptable daily intake (ADI) Acknowledgements The authors thank the Director, National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), for the keen interest shown in the study. The financial support provided by the Department of Food Processing, Government of India, New Delhi, is gratefully acknowledged.