Multi-element analysis of food dyes and assessment of consumer’s health

ABSTRACT

The present study assessed metallic contaminants levels in food colourings using an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in 51 samples of food dyes marketed in Algeria. The analysed samples were contaminated with lead (0.77 ± 0.034), arsenic (0.008 ± 0.006), cadmium (0.102 ± 0.047), cobalt (0.017 ± 0.008), copper (0.025 ± 0.011), chromium (0.820 ± 0.051), and nickel (0.022 ± 0.009) µg g⁻¹. Mercury constituted a minor contaminant (<0.001 to 0.002 µg g⁻¹). Turmeric and saffron were the most contaminated with Pb, As, Cd, Co, Cu, Cr, and Ni (p < 0.05). Health risk assessment revealed that infant population presents adverse non-carcinogenic effects (THQ = 4.25) and carcinogenic risk (HI = 4.65) linked to the consumption of food dyes contaminated with Cr.

KEYWORDS:

• Food dyes
• heavy metals
• contamination
• impurities
• health risk assessment
• food safety

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Credit author statement

HAM Sanaa and HAMADI Karima: Resources, Investigation; ZERGUI Anissa: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Data Curation, Visualisation, Writing – Original Draft; DJOUAD Mokhtar Eddine: Supervision. All authors discussed the review topic and contents and contributed to the final manuscript.

Data availability statement

The data collected and analysed for this study can be shared upon request.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.