Consumer exposures to anthocyanins from colour additives, colouring foodstuffs and from natural occurrence in foods

ABSTRACT

Anthocyanins are responsible for the red/blue colour of grapes, currants, and other fruits and vegetables. They may also be extracted for use as colour additives (E163) or concentrated for use as colouring foods. Consumer exposures have been assessed using data on natural occurrence, use levels and frequencies from food manufacturers and European food consumption data. Intakes from natural occurrence can be up to 4 mg kg bw⁻¹ day⁻¹ at the mean and up to 17 mg kg bw⁻¹ day⁻¹ for children who are high level consumers of red/black berries and small fruits. High-level intakes for children from food colour and colouring food applications lie in the range 0.3–6.3 mg kg bw⁻¹ day⁻¹ and for adults at 0.6–2.8 mg kg bw⁻¹ day⁻¹. Exposures from food colour use and colouring foods separately or combined are therefore lower than those from natural occurrence in foods.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Anthocyanins
• colour additives
• colouring foods
• dietary exposure
• risk assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental material

The supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

David R. Tennant acknowledges the financial support from the Natural Colours Association.