Page 16 - Analytical method for food addtives

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E110: Sunset yellow

1.1 Introduction

The major food groups contributing to dietary intake of sunset yellow are
confectionery, emulsified sauces, soft drinks and chocolate products; the maximum
permitted level of 500 mg/kg is allowed in sauces, seasonings, pickles, relishes,
chutney, piccalilli; decorations and coatings; salmon substitutes; surimi. The
acceptable daily intake (ADI) for sunset yellow is 2.5 mg/kg body weight.

1.2 Methods of analysis
The general scheme for identifying coal-tar dyes present in foods normally
involves: 1
1 Preliminary treatment of the food.
2 Extraction and purification of the dye from the prepared solution or extract of
the food.
3 Separation of mixed colours if more than one is present.
4 Identification of the separated dyes.
There are numerous methods published for the determination of sunset yellow in
foodstuffs. The majority of these methods are for the determination of various
water-soluble dyes, including sunset yellow, in foodstuffs. The early workers on
the development of methods for food colours used paper chromatography and TLC
2–8
but over the last 20 years HPLC, spectrophotometric, 9–15,22 voltammetric 20,21 and
more recently capillary zone electrophoresis 16–19 methods have been developed
and a summary of these is given in Table 1.1, together with the matrices to which
the methods apply. If statistical parameters for these methods are available they are