Page 38 - Analytical method for food addtives

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E122: Azorubine (carmoisine)

2.1 Introduction

The major food groups contributing to dietary intake of azorubine are chocolate
products, confectionery, emulsified sauces and soft drinks with the maximum
permitted level of 500 mg/kg being allowed in the same matrices as for sunset
yellow i.e. sauces, seasonings, pickles, relishes, chutney and piccalilli; decorations
and coatings; salmon substitutes; surimi. The ADI for azorubine is 4 mg/kg body
weight/day.

2.2 Methods of analysis

Azorubine is also a coal-tar dye and the general scheme for identifying these dyes
present in foods is the same as for sunset yellow. 1
There are many methods published for the determination of azorubine in
foodstuffs. The majority of these are for the determination of various water-soluble
dyes, including azorubine, in foodstuffs and some of these methods are the same
as for sunset yellow. The early workers on the development of methods for food
colours used paper chromatography and TLC but over the last 20 years HPLC, 2–4,6,7
5
spectrophotometric 8–11 and more recently capillary zone electrophoresis methods
have been developed and a summary of these is given in Table 2.1, together with
the matrices to which they apply. If statistical parameters for these methods were
available these have been summarised in Table 2.2. The majority of published
methods are for the determination of azorubine in liquid matrices i.e. drinks,
therefore further development of extraction procedures would be necessary to
adapt methods for other food matrices i.e. chocolate products.
A suitable method for the analysis of azorubine in soft drinks and flour-based
2
products was collaboratively trialled. The method consisted of a quantitative
.
extraction, as ion pairs with cetylpyridinium chloride, from aqueous solutions into