Spectrophotometric analysis of artificial food colors in commercial drinks consumed by children

Abstract EN

Various types of soft drinks and beverages with added fruit juices have been analysed for the contents of two of the most frequently used artificial food colorants : Tartrazine (E102) and Sunset Yellow (E100).

These analytical measurements were carried out primarily to assess whether the concentration levels and daily intakes of these food dyes in beverages, commonly consumed by children, comply with the recommended desired content levels and permissible daily intakes.

The average Tartrazine concentrations in the chosen soft drinks and beverages with added juice were found to be 56.7 ppm and 127.8 ppm, respectively.

Whereas the mean concentration of Sunset Yellow in the analysed soft drinks and beverages were 59.7 ppm and 67.3 ppm, respectively, which are both higher than the recommended Sunset Yellow content in drinks.

Generally, the estimated daily intake doses of these synthetic food dyes through the consumption of beverages were estimated to be lower than the recommended permissible daily intakes (PDI) of 225 mg and 75 mg for Tartrazine and Sunset Yellow, respectively.