Kinetic spectrophotometric methods are simple and sensitive analytical methods which have the advantages of high selectivity, possibility of no interference from the coloured and/or turbidity background of the samples, possibility of no interference from the other active compounds present in the commercial product, if they are resisting the chemical reaction conditions established for the proposed kinetic method. In addition, kinetic methods may come with higher sensitivity in comparison with equilibrium methods. This contribution describes the development of a simple kinetic spectrophotometric method for the assay of tartrazine in food samples. The method is based on catalytic effect of AgNPs on the oxidation of tartrazine by potassium iodate in acetate– acetic acid medium. It was found that in acetate–acetic acid media,potassium iodate could oxidise the tartrazine resulting in decolouration of the solution. AgNPs can catalysis the reaction. The
difference in absorbance of tartrazine at 420 nm between uncatalysed and catalysed reaction (DA) is directly proportional to the concentration
of tartrazine.