Safety of Some Synthetic Food Colours: Review

Food additives are used to protect food, increase quality and extend shelf life in many stages, from production to consumption of food. Colorants added by food producers to color food or to adjust the color to desired level are among the commonly used food additives. Considering today's developing production technologies, foods fade or discolor at various stages of processing, storage, and sale due to physical and chemical conditions such as heat, light, pH and oxygen. Colorants are used to regain these color losses, to enhance weak colors, to give color to the food that is actually colorless, and to win back the favour of customers by hiding low quality. Therefore, the most used food colorants in Canada, China, European Union, Mexico and United States of America were presented. The chemical name, chemical structure, common uses, acceptable daily intake (ADI), and toxicity literature of six most used artificial food colors were reviewed.