Surveillance on use of synthetic colours in eatables vis a vis Prevention of Food Adulteration Act of India

Abstract Synthetic colours are added to foods to replace natural colour lost during processing, to reduce batch-to-batch variation and to produce products with consumer appeal where no natural colour exists. A study was carried out to find the type and level of synthetic food colours added to various eatables in the urban and rural areas of Lucknow. Inventory of coloured eatables showed that more types and varieties of coloured eatables were prevalent in the urban areas than in the rural areas. Of the total 1199 analyzed samples, 69% coloured eatables revealed the presence of permitted colours while 31% samples contained non-permitted colours. The use of non-permitted colours was found to be more in rural areas than in the urban areas. Also, more of the rural market samples contained permitted colours exceeding the maximum allowed prescribed levels as compared to urban markets. In urban areas, samples of crushed ice which are preferentially consumed by children population, the presence of Sunset Yellow FCF and Tartrazine was found to exceed the permissible limit by 8 and 20 times while in rural areas Sunset Yellow FCF, Tartrazine and Carmoisine exceeded the permissible limit by 23, 16 and 15 times, respectively. Non-permitted colours such as Rhodamine B, Metanil Yellow, Orange II, Malachite Green, Auramine, Quinoline Yellow, Amaranth and Sudan dyes were identified in various foodstuffs. The use of these dyes is more common in the rural markets than in the urban markets. Extensive food quality monitoring and surveillance programmes are needed for exposure assessment and to safeguard the health of population at large.