Color has been added to food to enhance the visual appeal for several
hundreds of years. In the developing food industry of the late
19th century a wide range of synthetic colors were used, but issues
over the toxicity of these additives has led to the development of legislation
regulating the types and quantities of synthetic colors in different
food products. As a result of these efforts, there is currently in
European Union (EU) a solid framework of legislation controlling the
use of color additives in food.
Still the
recommended levels of these colorants are not well defined, and
new evidence from in vitro and in vivo studies has been presented
concerning both carcinogenicity and genotoxicity for some of these
substances.
Moreover, the techniques and protocols
used for the determination of these colorants in complex food matrices
are not robust enough, and further improvements are required.
The accurate and reliable determination of synthetic colorants in
different food matrices is of paramount importance to ensure safety
and concordance with regulations.