Page 55 - Analytical method for food addtives

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E150c: Caramel class III

4.1 Introduction
The major food groups containing caramel (Class III) are sauces and condiments,
soft and carbonated drinks, pies and pastries, desserts, soup and cakes. The ADI for
ammonia caramel is 200 mg/kg body weight/day. There are four classes of caramel
colours used as food additives and they are defined by the reactant added to the
carbohydrate during production. The reactant used in the production of Class III
caramels is ammonia and so the product is sometimes called ammonia caramel. 1

4.2 Methods of analysis

No references could be found for the analysis of caramel colour (Class III) in foods.
The only reference that could be found was for the analysis of caramel colour
(Class III) in general. This was an ion-pair HPLC and capillary electrophoresis
1
method, developed to distinguish Class III caramels from Classes I and IV. A
summary of this method is given in Table 4.1.

4.3 Recommendations
This method produced a fingerprint peak that was present in only Class III samples
and the observation of this fingerprint peak in foods could be used to indicate the
presence of Class III caramel and permit a semi-quantitative estimation of the level
1
of caramel in the foods. Therefore this method needs to be further developed and
applied to foods.