The DOI matches its Crossref record; 3 of the 3 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Health safety issues of synthetic food colorants
Abstract
Increasing attention has been recently paid to the toxicity of additives used in food. The European Parliament and the Council published the REGULATION (EC) No. 1333/2008 on food additives establishing that the toxicity of food additives evaluated before 20th January 2009 must be re-evaluated by European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The aim of this review is to survey current knowledge specifically on the toxicity issues of synthetic food colorants using official reports published by the EFSA and other available studies published since the respective report. Synthetic colorants described are Tartrazine, Quinoline Yellow, Sunset Yellow, Azorubine, Ponceau 4R, Erythrosine, Allura Red, Patent Blue, Indigo Carmine, Brilliant Blue FCF, Green S, Brilliant Black and Brown HT. Moreover, a summary of evidence on possible detrimental effects of colorant mixes on children's behaviour is provided and future research directions are outlined.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Nigg, J. T., Lewis, K., Edinger, T., & Falk, M. (2012) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2011.10.015 · Cited by 260
SCHAB, D. W., & TRINH, N.-H. T. (2004) · Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics · doi:10.1097/00004703-200412000-00007 · Cited by 234
Magnuson, B., Munro, I., Abbot, P., Baldwin, N., Lopez-Garcia, R., Ly, K., McGirr, L., Roberts, A., & Socolovsky, S. (2013) · Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A · doi:10.1080/19440049.2013.795293 · Cited by 200 · cited 1×
“026 (Hallagan et al., 1995; Kumar and Madan, 2014; Magnuson et al., 2013).”
Research works printed but not linked: 82
- Axon, 2012, Tartrazine and sunset yellow are xenoestrogens in a new screening assay to identify modulators of human oestrogen receptor transcriptional activity, Toxicology, 298, 40, 10.1016/j.tox.2012.04.014 · DOI
- Basu, 2014, Study on the interaction of the toxic food additive Carmoisine with serum albumins: a microcalorimetric investigation, J. Hazard Mater, 273, 200, 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2014.03.049 · DOI
- Basu, 2014, Thermodynamics of the interaction of the food additive Tartrazine with serum albumins: a microcalorimetric investigation, Food Chem., 175, 137, 10.1016/j.foodchem.2014.11.141 · DOI
- Baumler, 2015, Absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of tattoo colorants and ingredients in mouse and man: the known and the unknown, Curr. Probl. Dermatol., 48, 176, 10.1159/000369222 · DOI
- Bezu, 2011, Anaphylactic response to blue dye during sentinel lymph node biopsy, Surg. Oncol., 20, e55, 10.1016/j.suronc.2010.10.002 · DOI
- Borzelleca, 1990, Lifetime toxicity/carcinogenicity studies of FD & C Blue No. 1 (Brilliant Blue FCF) in rats and mice, Food Chem. Toxicol., 28, 221, 10.1016/0278-6915(90)90034-K · DOI
- Ceyhan, 2013, Effects of maternally exposed coloring food additives on receptor expressions related to learning and memory in rats, Food Chem. Toxicol., 56, 145, 10.1016/j.fct.2013.02.016 · DOI
- Cheeseman, 2012, Artificial food color additives and child behavior, Environ. Health Perspect., 120, A15, 10.1289/ehp.1104409 · DOI
- Chequer, 2015, The cosmetic dye quinoline yellow causes DNA damage in vitro, Mutat. Res. Genet. Toxicol. Environ. Mutagen, 777, 54, 10.1016/j.mrgentox.2014.11.003 · DOI
- Chung, 1992, The reduction of azo dyes by the intestinal microflora, Crit. Rev. Microbiol., 18, 175, 10.3109/10408419209114557 · DOI · Paper page
- Codrea, 2013, Comment on “Absorption of triphenylmethane dyes Brilliant Blue and Patent Blue through intact skin, shaven skin and lingual mucosa from daily life products” by Lucova et al. (2013), Food Chem. Toxicol., 52, 19, 10.1016/j.fct.2012.10.027 · DOI
- Datta, 2013, pH-insensitive electrostatic interaction of carmoisine with two serum proteins: a possible caution on its uses in food and pharmaceutical industry, J. Photochem. Photobiol. B, 124, 50, 10.1016/j.jphotobiol.2013.04.004 · DOI
- de Boer, 2014, Biotechnological production of colorants, Adv. Biochem. Eng. Biotechnol., 143, 51
- Dixit, 2013, Evaluation of reproductive toxicity caused by Indigo carmine on male Swiss albino mice, Pharmacol. Online, 1, 7
- Doguc, 2013, Effects of maternally exposed colouring food additives on cognitive performance in rats, Toxicol. Ind. Health, 29, 616, 10.1177/0748233712436638 · DOI
- Doguc, 2015, Are there any remarkable effects of prenatal exposure to food colourings on neurobehaviour and learning process in rat offspring?, Nutr. Neurosci., 18, 12, 10.1179/1476830513Y.0000000095 · DOI
- Duffus, 2009, Glossary of terms used in toxicology, 2nd edition (IUPAC Recommendations 2007), Pure Appl. Chem., 79, 191
- Dwivedi, 2015, Genetic damage induced by a food coloring dye (sunset yellow) on meristematic cells of Brassica campestris L, J. Environ. Public Health, 2015, 319727
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, E, 2008, EFSA J., 660, 54
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, E, 2009, Scientific opinion on the re-evaluation of Allura Red AC (E 129) as a food additive on request from the European Commission, EFSA J., 7, 39
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, E, 2009, Scientific opinion on the re-evaluation of Azorubine/Carmoisine (E 122) as a food additive on request the European Commission, EFSA J., 7, 40
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, E, 2009, Scientific opinion on the re-evaluation of Quinoline Yellow (E 104) as a food additive, EFSA J., 7, 40
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, E, 2009, Scientific opinion on the re-evaluation of Sunset Yellow FCF (E 110) as a food additive on request from the European Commission, EFSA J., 7, 44
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, E, 2009, Scientific opinion on the re-evaluation Tartrazine (E 102), EFSA J., 7, 52, 10.2903/j.efsa.2009.1331 · DOI
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, E, 2009, Scientific opinion on the reevaluation of Ponceau 4R (E 124) as a food additive on request from the European Commission, EFSA J., 7, 39, 10.2903/j.efsa.2009.1328 · DOI
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, E, 2010, Scientific opinion on the re-evaluation of Brown HT (E 155) as a food additive, EFSA J., 8, 32
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, E, 2010, Scientific opinion on the reevaluation of Brilliant Black BN (E 151) as a food additive on request from the European Commission, EFSA J., 8, 30, 10.2903/j.efsa.2010.1540 · DOI
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, E, 2010, Scientific opinion on the reevaluation of Brilliant Blue FCF (E 133) as a food additive, EFSA J., 8, 36, 10.2903/j.efsa.2010.1853 · DOI
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, E, 2010, Scientific opinion on the reevaluation of Green S (E 142) as a food additive, EFSA J., 8, 32, 10.2903/j.efsa.2010.1851 · DOI
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, E, 2011, Revised exposure assessment for Sunset Yellow FCF based on the proposed revised maximum permitted levels of use as a food additive, EFSA J., 9, 10
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, E, 2011, Scientific opinion on the reevaluation of Erythrosine (E 127) as a food additive, EFSA J., 9, 46, 10.2903/j.efsa.2011.1854 · DOI
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, E, 2013, Scientific opinion on the re-evaluation of Patent Blue V (E 131) as a food additive, EFSA J., 11, 35
- EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, E, 2014, Scientific opinion on the re-evaluation of Indigo Carmine (E 132) as a food additive, EFSA J., 12, 51, 10.2903/j.efsa.2014.3768 · DOI
- Fallico, 2011, Assessment of the exposure to Allura Red colour from the consumption of red juice-based and red soft drinks in Italy, Food Addit. Contam. A Chem. Anal. Control Expo. Risk Assess., 28, 1501, 10.1080/19440049.2011.596166 · DOI
- Feng, 2012, Toxicological significance of azo dye metabolism by human intestinal microbiota, Front. Biosci. (Elite Ed.), 4, 568, 10.2741/e400 · DOI
- Gao, 2011, Effect of food azo dye tartrazine on learning and memory functions in mice and rats, and the possible mechanisms involved, J. Food Sci., 76, T125, 10.1111/j.1750-3841.2011.02267.x · DOI
- Gardner, 1987, Effects of oral erythrosine (2',4',5',7'-tetraiodofluorescein) on thyroid function in normal men, Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol., 91, 299, 10.1016/0041-008X(87)90052-4 · DOI
- Golka, 2004, Carcinogenicity of azo colorants: influence of solubility and bioavailability, Toxicol. Lett., 151, 203, 10.1016/j.toxlet.2003.11.016 · DOI · Paper page
- Groten, 2000, An analysis of the possibility for health implications of joint actions and interactions between food additives, Regul. Toxicol. Pharmacol., 31, 77, 10.1006/rtph.1999.1356 · DOI
- Hallagan, 1995, The safety and regulatory status of food, drug and cosmetics colour additives exempt from certification, Food Chem. Toxicol., 33, 515, 10.1016/0278-6915(95)00010-Y · DOI
- Jacobson, 2011, Allosteric modulation of purine and pyrimidine receptors, Adv. Pharmacol., 61, 187, 10.1016/B978-0-12-385526-8.00007-2 · DOI
- Jennings, 1990, Effects of oral erythrosine (2',4',5',7'-tetraiodofluorescein) on the pituitary-thyroid axis in rats, Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol., 103, 549, 10.1016/0041-008X(90)90327-Q · DOI
- Jindal, 2014, Macular toxicity following Brilliant Blue G-assisted macular hole surgery – a report of three cases, Nepal J. Ophthalmol., 6, 98, 10.3126/nepjoph.v6i1.10779 · DOI
- Kleinman, 2012, A research model for investigating the effects of artificial food colorings on children with ADHD, Pediatrics, 127, e1575, 10.1542/peds.2009-2206 · DOI
- Kumar, 2014, Color additives: legislative perspective in the United States, Europe, Australia, and India, Int. J. Pharm. Compd., 18, 293
- Kus, 2015, Genotoxic and cytotoxic effects of Sunset Yellow and Brilliant Blue, colorant food additives, on human blood lymphocytes, Pak J. Pharm. Sci., 28, 227
- Langner-Viviani, 2014, Anaphylaxis to blue dyes, Rev. Med. Suisse, 10, 876
- Lee, 2015, Repetitive severe hypotension induced by indigo carmine, J. Anesth., 29, 156, 10.1007/s00540-014-1859-x · DOI
- Leleu, 2013, Quinoline Yellow dye-induced fixed food-and-drug eruption, Contact Dermat., 68, 187, 10.1111/cod.12019 · DOI
- Lucova, 2013, Absorption of triphenylmethane dyes Brilliant Blue and Patent Blue through intact skin, shaven skin and lingual mucosa from daily life products, Food Chem. Toxicol., 52, 19, 10.1016/j.fct.2012.10.027 · DOI
- Ma, 2014, Effects of Brilliant Blue G on serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha levels and depression-like behavior in mice after lipopolysaccharide administration, Clin. Psychopharmacol. Neurosci., 12, 31, 10.9758/cpn.2014.12.1.31 · DOI
- Macioszek, 2004, The evaluation of the genotoxicity of two commonly used food colors: Quinoline Yellow (E 104) and Brilliant Black BN (E 151), Cell Mol. Biol. Lett., 9, 107
- Maranhao, 2014, Allergic reaction to patent blue dye in breast surgery – case report, Rev. Bras. Anestesiol.
- Masone, 2015, Study on the interaction of artificial and natural food colorants with human serum albumin: a computational point of view, Comput. Biol. Chem., 56, 152, 10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2015.04.006 · DOI
- Mathur, 2005, Sunset yellow induced changes in the lipid profile in male albino rat, Biochem. Cell Arch., 5, 3
- Mathur, 2005, Effect of Sunset Yellow on testis in rats, J. Ecophysiol. Occup. Hlth, 5, 1
- May, 2010, Antagonist selective modulation of adenosine A1 and A3 receptor pharmacology by the food dye Brilliant Black BN: evidence for allosteric interactions, Mol. Pharmacol., 77, 678, 10.1124/mol.109.063065 · DOI
- Mazari, 2015, Identification of new inhibitors for human hematopoietic prostaglandin D2 synthase among FDA-approved drugs and other compounds, Chem. Biol. Interact., 229, 91, 10.1016/j.cbi.2015.01.014 · DOI
- McCann, 2007, Food additives and hyperactive behaviour in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the community: a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial, Lancet, 370, 1560, 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61306-3 · DOI · Paper page
- Moller, 2000, Genotoxic hazards of azo pigments and other colorants related to 1-phenylazo-2-hydroxynaphthalene, Mutat. Res., 462, 13, 10.1016/S1383-5742(99)00090-3 · DOI
- Moradi-Khatoonabadi, 2015, Synthetic food colours in saffron solutions, saffron rice and saffron chicken from restaurants in Tehran, Iran, Food Addit. Contam. B Surveill., 8, 12, 10.1080/19393210.2014.945195 · DOI
- Mpountoukas, 2010, Cytogenetic evaluation and DNA interaction studies of the food colorants amaranth, erythrosine and tartrazine, Food Chem. Toxicol., 48, 2934, 10.1016/j.fct.2010.07.030 · DOI
- Newsome, 2014, Nature's palette: the search for natural blue colorants, J. Agric. Food Chem., 62, 6498, 10.1021/jf501419q · DOI
- Osman, 2002, Synthetic organic hard capsule colouring agents: in vitro effect on human true and pseudo-cholinesterases, Br. J. Biomed. Sci., 59, 212, 10.1080/09674845.2002.11783662 · DOI
- Pan, 2011, Characterizing the Interaction between tartrazine and two serum albumins by a hybrid spectroscopic approach, J. Agric. Food Chem., 59, 6650, 10.1021/jf200907x · DOI
- Puvaneswari, 2006, Toxicity assessment and microbial degradation of azo dyes, Indian J. Exp. Biol., 44, 618
- Sardi, 2010, Use of retailer fidelity card schemes in the assessment of food additive intake: Sunset Yellow a case study, Food Addit. Contam. A Chem. Anal. Control Expo. Risk Assess., 27, 1507, 10.1080/19440049.2010.495728 · DOI
- Sasaki, 2002, The comet assay with 8 mouse organs: results with 39 currently used food additives, Mutat. Res., 519, 103, 10.1016/S1383-5718(02)00128-6 · DOI · Paper page
- Shahabadi, 2012, Study on the interaction of food colourant quinoline yellow with bovine serum albumin by spectroscopic techniques, Food Chem., 135, 1836, 10.1016/j.foodchem.2012.06.095 · DOI
- Soares, 2015, Effects on DNA repair in human lymphocytes exposed to the food dye tartrazine yellow, Anticancer Res., 35, 1465
- Stevens, 2014, Amounts of artificial food dyes and added sugars in foods and sweets commonly consumed by children, Clin. Pediatr. (Phila)
- Takeyama, 2014, Case of Wenckebach-type atrioventricular block caused by administration of indigo carmine, Tokai J. Exp. Clin. Med., 39, 10
- Tanaka, 2006, Reproductive and neurobehavioural toxicity study of Ponceau 4R administered to mice in the diet, Food Chem. Toxicol., 44, 1651, 10.1016/j.fct.2006.05.001 · DOI
- Tellier, 2012, Sentinel lymph nodes fluorescence detection and imaging using Patent Blue V bound to human serum albumin, Biomed. Opt. Exp., 3, 2306, 10.1364/BOE.3.002306 · DOI
- Tsuda, 2001, DNA damage induced by red food dyes orally administered to pregnant and male mice, Toxicol. Sci., 61, 92, 10.1093/toxsci/61.1.92 · DOI
- van Vliet, 2011, Current standing and future prospects for the technologies proposed to transform toxicity testing in the 21st century, ALTEX, 28, 17, 10.14573/altex.2011.1.017 · DOI
- Viegas, 2015, Patent Blue anaphylaxis: case report, J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. Pract., 3, 112, 10.1016/j.jaip.2014.07.003 · DOI
- Vojdani, 2015, Immune reactivity to food coloring, Altern. Ther. Health Med., 21, 52
- Wang, 2014, Binding properties of food colorant Allura Red with human serum albumin in vitro, Mol. Biol. Rep., 41, 3381, 10.1007/s11033-014-3200-z · DOI
- Wu, 2015, Characterisation of interaction between food colourant Allura red AC and human serum albumin: multispectroscopic analyses and docking simulations, Food Chem., 170, 423, 10.1016/j.foodchem.2014.08.088 · DOI
- Wu, 2015, Anaphylactic reaction to Patent Blue V used in preoperative computed tomography-guided dye localization of small lung nodules, J. Formos. Med. Assoc., 10.1016/j.jfma.2015.04.003 · DOI
- Zaknun, 2011, Potential role of antioxidant food supplements, preservatives and colorants in the pathogenesis of allergy and asthma, Int. Arch. Allergy Immunol., 157, 113, 10.1159/000329137 · DOI
Cited by
Relationships between food and diseases: what to know to ensure food safety
Gallo, M., Ferrara, L., Calogero, A., Montesano, D., & Naviglio, D. (2020) · Food Research International · doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2020.109414 · Cited by 306
Khazi, M. I., Demirel, Z., & Dalay, M. C. (2018) · Journal of Applied Phycology · doi:10.1007/s10811-018-1398-1 · Cited by 93
Roriz, C. L., Barros, L., Prieto, M. A., Morales, P., & Ferreira, I. C. F. R. (2017) · Food Chemistry · doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2017.02.073 · Cited by 66
Soylak, M., Çoban, A. N., & Ahmed, H. E. H. (2025) · Journal of the Iranian Chemical Society · doi:10.1007/s13738-025-03212-0 · Cited by 9
Metadata
- Authors
- Amchova, P., Kotolova, H., & Ruda-Kucerova, J.
- Venue
- Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-12
- Volume
- 73
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 914-922
- ISSN
- 0273-2300 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1785573738
- Cited by
- 545
- References
- 3
- FWCI
- 17.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- Funders
- Masaryk University (MUNI/A/1116/2014)
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Health safety issues of synthetic food colorants. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1016/j.yrtph.2015.09.026
- The paper
- Amchova, P., Kotolova, H., & Ruda-Kucerova, J. (2015). Health safety issues of synthetic food colorants. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yrtph.2015.09.026
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.