Measurement: Food 7 (2022) 100050

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Measurement: Food
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/meafoo

Food dyes and health: Literature quantitative research analysis

Alessandra Durazzo a,∗, Márcio Carocho b,∗, Sandrina Heleno b, Lillian Barros b, Eliana B. Souto c,d,
Antonello Santini e, Massimo Lucarini a,∗
a
CREA-Research Centre for Food and Nutrition, Via Ardeatina 546, 00178 Roma, Italy
b
Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253 Bragança, Portugal
c
Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira, 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
d
REQUIMTE/UCIBIO, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira, 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
e
Department of Pharmacy, University of Napoli Federico II, Via D. Montesano 49, 80131 Napoli, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: Food color is often associated in the collective imagination to properties like flavor, taste, sensory qualities, and
Food genuinity. While synthetic food dyes may cause several harmful effects to human health, and most of them are not
Dyes used or allowed in food manufacturing according to the regulations of each country, the origin of food dyes are
Safety
receiving greater attention for their safety, hence being more present in literature studies. This perspective aims at
Quantitative literature analysis
providing a current framework on food dyes and health relationship, throughout a literature quantitative research
Regulation
Technology analysis approach, by highlighting the current knowledge, the main research lines and emerging strategies in an
Colorants integrated and multidisciplinary manner.
Functionality A preliminary insight is offered in terms of definition, categorization, and legislation on food additives, as
health well as postulations for a near future in terms of natural and synthetic food dyes.
To confirm the interest and importance of research on food dyes (food colorants), a literature quantitative
research analysis was carried out by means of Scopus database as a source to retrieve publications on food dyes
and related health relationship. A total of 893 publications in the year range from 1962 to 2022 were retrieved and
evaluated through the literature search and elaborated on. Among the main observations, it should be mentioned
that a prevalence of the use of natural dyes in foodstuffs, replacing synthetic colorants is trending, prospectively
suggesting their higher impact on processed food where they are progressively replacing those obtained from
synthesis. Surveillance studies and exposure ones of synthetic of food dyes are being carried out. Moreover, the
use of innovative food technologies and new extraction and stabilization techniques represent a great challenge.
New direction is also the utilization of bio‐residues as source of food dyes.
Restricting the search in term of natural or synthetic food dyes, 390 publications were returned in the period
1980–2022 and were export and processed by VOSviewer software. A total of 301 terms were identified and are
visualized as a term map and particularly the top 20 recurring terms are as follows: food dye, human/s, chemistry,
food coloring agents, nonhuman, food color, antioxidant/s, anthocyanin/s, color, animals, unclassified drug,
food additives, carotenoid, controlled study, metabolism, antioxidant activity, food additive. The search revealed
the strict linkage between the chemistry of food dye and health, with particular emphasis to antioxidants, and
compound class, i.e. anthocyanins, carotenoids and others.

1. Introduction 2. Food dyes: an overview

Worldwide consumers are more and more interested in appealing
foodstuffs, and, at the same time, safer, more nutritious, and health-
ier products. Color is one of the most important organoleptic attributes
linked to overall food quality and that directly influences consumers’
acceptance and food selection.
Food dyes are explored as follows: i) definition and role of food dyes;
ii) categorization of food dyes; iii) quantitative research literature anal-
ysis.
2.1. Definition and role of food dyes

When shopping for food, the first sensory stimuli that consumers
feel is color. A long time before they smell or taste the food, the color

∗
Corresponding author.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.meafoo.2022.100050
Received 16 May 2022; Received in revised form 5 July 2022; Accepted 18 July 2022
2772-2759/© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
A. Durazzo, M. Carocho, S. Heleno et al.
sends information, since the eyes are the first judge of food appear-
ance. This color should match the expectation of consumers, or even
surpass it, but artificial colors in food can also be detrimental to con-
sumer perception. Enter the realm of food dyes, or food colorants, that
represent some of the most important food additives. These additives
are molecules added to food to carry out a technological function, be it
may to color, sweeten, preserve, change texture, humidify, dry, among
other technological functions. Colorants, as the name implies, impart
color to foods, to mask unwanted colors, to homogenize color, to extend
a specific color over time or simply to make the natural color of food
become more or less intense, or vibrant [1]. Naturally occurring color
additives that were sourced from vegetables and minerals were used in
ancient times, while the first artificially colored food was wine, back in
300 BCE. In 1856, Willian Perkin discovered mauve, the first synthetic
dye, sourced from coal, creating a trend of coal-tar-colors. In the United
States (US), the federal government started regulating food dyes back in
the 1880s, and allowed dyes that were quite harmful to human health,
although at the time, technology was not enough to understand this
harm. In 1927, when the control and regulation of food dyes, as well
as all food additives was handed over to the Food and Drug Adminis-
tration of the United States of America [2], which until today enforces
control over food related issues [2]. Today, some food additives have,
in the US, a special authorization known as GRAS - Generally Regarded
as Safe, meaning their use in amounts enough to fulfill their intended
function is safe, but, in food colorants, no additive if considered GRAS.
This is due to the sources of food additives, which in some cases are
toxic, thus needing proper regulation [2].
2.2. Categorization of food dyes
Categorization of food dyes varies around the globe, being two spe-
cific organisms the most renowned and respected, namely the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Food Safety Authority of
the European Union (EFSA). These organisms carry out safety regula-
tions, review scientific data, potential toxicity and estimate human di-
etary exposure to colorants (and other food additives). EFSA labels food
additives beyond their name, attributing unique identifiers to each ad-
ditive, composed of the “E” letter followed by a number (i.e. E392). Col-
orants range from E100 (Curcumin) to E180 (litholrubine BK), but only
40 colorants are allowed as of 2021 within the European Union (EU).
All colorants, as well as other food additives within the EU are subject to
regulation in terms of their admissible daily intake (ADI), which defines
the maximum amount of each additive can be ingested by the popula-
tion each day. Some exceptions exist for food additives that do not pose
toxic threats to consumers, and are considered quantum satis, meaning
the amount enough is added to the food to carry out the technological
function. None of the food colorants in the EU is considered quantum
satis.
Colorants are divided in three types, namely straight colors, lakes,
and mixtures. Straight colors are colorants that have not been mixes
or reacted chemically with any other substance while lakes are formed
by reacting straight colors with precipitants or other substrata. Finally,
mixtures are obtained by mixing one colorant with another or diluted
in diluents, but without chemical reactions taking place [2]. Not all
foods can have colorants added to them due to a color impart not being
allowed by the legislator entities. Examples of these foods are waters,
chocolate milks, some fruit juices and cheeses, among others [3]. Some
authors classify colorants based on their origin, dividing them into 5
different groups, namely azo compounds, quinophthalon derivatives of
quinoline yellow, the triarylmethane group and the xanthenes. The azo
compounds are chemicals with the general formula R-N = N-R’ and dis-
play colors from yellow to red. The second group, the quinophthalon
derivatives, as the name implies derive from quinophthalon, and also
display colors in the range of yellow to red. The group of triarylmethane
relies on the backbone of triphenylmethane to produce different com-
pounds while the xantheses is a group comprised of erythrosine, fluo-
2
Measurement: Food 7 (2022) 100050
resceine, eosines and rhodamines. Finally, the indigo colorants derive
from the indigo dye and produce blueish pigmentation [1,4].
3. Food dyes: quantitative research literature analysis
The goal of the perspective is to give a current quantitative re-
search analysis of the food dyes and health relationships present in
literature. On 30 October 2021, the Scopus database was selected
to carry out a search in order to retrieve food dyes and health re-
lationship publications. The search string: (“Food dye∗ ” OR “Food
color∗ ” OR “Food colour∗ ” OR “Food colorant∗ ” OR “Food colourant∗ ”
OR “Food colouring∗ ” OR “Food coloring∗ ” AND “Health∗ ”) was
used to extract bibliometric data from the Scopus online database
(https://www.scopus.com/home.uri, accessed on 30 October 2021) and
bibliographic data i.e. publication year, publication count, document
type, countries/territories of origin, and institutions, were recorded. The
functions of the Scopus web online platform named “Analyze” and “Cre-
ate Citation Report” were utilized for carrying out basic analyses, for
further bibliometric analyses and additional processing. In the range
years from 1962 to 2022, 893 publications were retrieved by literature
search and were collectively cited 23,697 documents with an h-index of
78 (given by the software used) as an average. The publications trends
are reported in Fig. 1. The most recent paper is addressing on voltam-
metric determination of various food azo dyes using different modified
carbon paste electrodes [5].
The distribution of the documents by type concerning food dyes and
health relationship is reported in Fig. 2 as follows: “Article” for the
68.2% and "Review" for the 18.5%, followed by “Book Chapter” (4.7%),
and “Conference Paper” (4.5%), etc.
The most cited “Article” (872 times) is on the role of anthocyanins
as natural colorants with health-promoting properties [6], followed by
the work of Bridle, and Timberlake, [7] (442 times) published on Food
Chemistry on anthocyanins as natural food colors. On the other side,
the most recent “Article” is focused on xylooligosaccharides as an in-
novative carrier matrix of spray-dried natural blue colorant [8]. Other
recent documents belonging to “Article” category are addressed on: -
evaluation of the underestimation of citrinin content in Hongqu using
hydrolysis treatments and UPLC-FLD [9]; -on efficient extraction process
and stability evaluation of phycocyanin from Arthrospira platensis [10];-
electrochemiluminescence detection of sunset yellow in soft drinks [11];
- characterizing the binding affinity and molecular interplay between
quinoline yellow and pepsin [12].
Among the “Book” category, the most cited (42 times) is the one en-
titled “Natural food additives, ingredients, and flavourings”, edited by
Baines, and Seal, [13], followed by that one by Kushwaha, [14] on black
rice (37 times), then follows a book on food carotenoids (33 times) [15].
Among the most recent ones, books entitled books “Betalains: biomolec-
ular aspects” [16] and the “Handbook on natural pigments in food and
beverages: industrial applications for improving food color” [17] are re-
ported. It is worth mentioning the oldest “Short Survey” document by
Babu, and Shenolikar, [18] addressing on health and nutritional impli-
cations of food colors.
Fig. 3 reported the most productive Authors in this sector. Ferreira
I.C.F.R. resulted the most productive author with 9 Documents.
Her most cited document (174 times) is a review describing the
challenges, opportunities, and current desires of agro-industries to en-
sure consumer expectations and regulatory practices: synthetic food col-
orants were largely used, but currently they have been progressively re-
placed by those obtained from natural ones. Numerous side effects and
toxicity, at both medium and long-terms, allergic reactions, behavioral,
and neurocognitive effects have been related with the use of synthetic
colorants. Moreover, high quality, efficiency and organoleptic properties
are reported for naturally derived food colorants, playing an effective
role as health promoters. The most commonly used colorants are an-
thocyanins, carotenoids, phenolic compounds, beet derivatives, annatto
A. Durazzo, M. Carocho, S. Heleno et al.
Fig. 2. Distribution of documents by type concerning food dyes and health re-
lationship publications. (Based on data from Scopus).
Fig. 3. The most productive authors. (Based on data from Scopus).
and some curcuminoids, while strict regulatory practices have been ap-
plied looking for food quality assurance [19].
Her most recent paper is on anthocyanins from Rubus fruticosus l. and
Morus nigra l. as natural alternative applied as food colorants [20]: the
produced colouring formulations showed a good stability over time, in
terms of anthocyanin concentration and color parameters, and seem to
be safe for consumption, either concerning their low microbial load and
lack of cytotoxicity. Other two papers published by this author in 2021
are on:-eggplant fruit (Solanum melongena l.) and bio‐residues as a source
of nutrients, bioactive compounds, and food colorants, using innovative
food technologies [21]; -pros and cons of these natural additives from
3
Measurement: Food 7 (2022) 100050
Fig. 1. Publication trends (1962–2020) of food dyes and health
relationship search. (Based on data retrieved from Scopus
database).
fruits, where the major pigments found in fruits and their extraction and
stabilization techniques for uses as food additives were explored [22].
All the eight documents reported for Barros, L. are co-authored with
Ferreira I.C.F.R.
For Zou, L., in addition to the study published in 2014 on the op-
timization conditions for anthocyanins extraction from red cabbage us-
ing response surface methodology [23], the area of investigation is ad-
dressed towards melanin [24-30]; particularly the most cited paper, re-
ported from this research area, for Zou, L. is focused on optimization of
ultrasound-assisted extraction of melanin from edible mushroom Auric-
ularia auricula fruit bodies [25], whereas the most recent paper of this
author, described a fermentative production of melanin by Auricularia
auricula [26].
For Dufossé, L, the most cited document is addressed on study of fil-
amentous fungi as large-scale producers of pigments and colorants for
the food industry [31]. The most recent document of this author is fo-
cused on bacterial pigments as sustainable compounds with market po-
tential for pharma and food industry [32]. One document of this author
belonged to “Article” category and it described the structural diversity
and selected biological activities of anthraquinones and derivatives from
marine-derived fungi [33].
For Das, M., the main aspect of food dyes was surveillance stud-
ies and exposure ones [34–38]; particularly the most cited paper is on
surveillance on use of synthetic colors in eatables vis a vis Prevention of
Food Adulteration Act of India [34]. The oldest document is addressed
on reductive and hydrolytic activities of enteric bacteria on food colors
[39]. All the six publications by Khanna S.K. are co-authored and the
same obtained for Das, M.
Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 report respectively the most productive Coun-
tries/Territories and Institutions.
Regarding Countries/Territories, United States (n = 161) was the
prost productive Country, followed by India (n = 86) and China (n = 75).
For United States, the most recent paper was focused on detecting dye-
contaminated vegetables using low-field NMR relaxometry [40]. In an-
other one, Nallar et al. [41] described the optimization of safer solvent
blends for food, dye, and environmental analyses using reversed-phase
high performance liquid chromatography .
For India the most recent work is the paper of Mahale et al. [5] pre-
viously described; then it is worth mentioning the review of Manzoor
et al. [42] focused on the valorization of natural colors as health-
promoting bioactive compounds published on 2021 on Food Chemistry.
The paper well summarized various aspects of natural colorants, in-
cluding their sources, photochemistry and associated biological activ-
ities, explored considering in-vitro and in-vivo animal and human stud-
ies, with particular attention to the innovative technological approaches
for the effective extraction of natural origin colors for nutraceutical and
pharmaceutical applications. Its most cited paper is focused on bioac-
A. Durazzo, M. Carocho, S. Heleno et al. Measurement: Food 7 (2022) 100050

Table 1
The top 20 recurring terms (Based on data from Scopus and elaborated by
VOSviewer software).

Term Occurrence Total link strength

food dye 92 1532

human 81 1485
humans 58 1147
chemistry 63 1127
food coloring agents 62 1115
nonhuman 59 1027
food color 55 964
antioxidant 54 933
anthocyanins 69 801
antioxidants 50 800
anthocyanin 51 757
color 50 726
animals 36 676
unclassified drug 32 645
Fig. 4. Most productive Countries/Territories (Based on data from Scopus). food additives 59 643
carotenoid 32 621
controlled study 36 590
metabolism 34 580
tive compounds of beetroot and utilization in food processing industry antioxidant activity 31 565
[43]. food additive 33 549
For China, the most recent paper is that by Hou et al. [9] previously
described, whereas the most cited work (239 times) is focused on the
exhaled droplets due to talking and coughing [44], followed by the work them with the citation data of the publications, and visualizing the re-
of Egner et al. [45] (230 times) that showed how chlorophyllin interven- sults in the form of a bubble map by using a term map with default
tion reduces aflatoxin-DNA adducts in individuals at high risk for liver settings. To simplify the bubble map, words/terms that appeared in at
cancer. Ye et al. [46], cited 140 time, summarized the progresses and least 5 of the publications were analyzed and visualized. Of the 4299
prospects of biosynthesis and regulation of carotenoids in Dunaliella. keywords, 304 met the selected threshold, and 3 of them were manu-
As reported in Fig. 5, The most productive institution was the Univer- ally excluded.
sidade Estadual de Campinas with 12 documents. All the Top 10 Insti- A total of 301 terms were identified from the quantitative literature
tutions contributed with at least or more than 7 publications. The most research on 390 publications and are visualized as a term map in the
cited publication (87 times) for the Universidade Estadual de Camp- Fig. 6 and particularly in Table 1 were highlighted the top 20 recurring
inas was the review published by Rodriguez-Amaya in 2019 on Food terms. The search revealed the strict linkage between the chemistry of
Research International, on carotenoids, anthocyanins, and betalains as an food dye and health, with particular emphasis to antioxidants, and com-
update on natural food pigments [47]. Among the most recent papers, pound class, i.e. anthocyanins, carotenoids and others.
beside the work of Neves et al. [8] as previously described, the review of
Landim et al. [48] on consumer acceptance, current alternatives, trends, 4. Food dyes: regulations and homogenization efforts
challenges, and future strategies of natural blue food colorants.
Restricting the search including also the terms “natural∗ ” OR Regulation of food dyes and also food additives is quite enforced
“synthetic∗ ” by means of the search string: TITLE-ABS-KEY (search throughout the world, and is quite effective in industrialized countries,
string: ("“Food dye∗ ” OR “Food color∗ ” OR “Food colour∗ ” OR “Food where food is routinely analyzed for fraud and misconduct by produc-
color-ant∗ ” OR “Food colourant∗ ” OR “Food colouring∗ ” OR “Food ers. Still, in many countries, food scares, scandals and food tampering
coloring∗ ”AND “Health∗ ” AND “natural∗ ” OR “synthetic∗ ”), 390 pub- are quite common. China, for instance, is probably the country with the
lications were returned in the period 1980–2022. highest amount of food fraud, being some of it related to food additives
The “full records and cited references” were exported to VOSviewer and specifically food dyes. This occurs due to the difficulty to enforce
software (version 1.6.16, www.vosviewer.com, accessed on 30 October laws and regulations. Soon & Liu [52] described a sense of insecurity,
2021) for further bibliometric analyses and additional processing. The anxiety and disapproval from Chinese citizens towards the state of food
procedure of VOSviewer software (v.1.6.16, 2020) [49–51] is based in products in their country, and millions of dollars are wasted yearly with
the analysis of the terms/words used in the titles and abstracts of publi- food import rejections from Chinese products [53] . While third world
cations by broken down the paragraphs into words and phrases, linking countries try and combat food fraud, the industrialized nations also face

Fig. 5. Most productive Institutions (Based on data from Scopus).

4
A. Durazzo, M. Carocho, S. Heleno et al.
some controversies regarding food additives and specifically food dyes.
For instance, between the USA and EU, some food dyes, produced in the
same manner and for the same use are banned in the US and allowed in
the EU, and the inverse also occurs. Examples like carmoisine (E122),
amaranth (E123), patent blue (E131), brilliant green (E142) and bril-
liant black (E151) are allowed to be used in specific doses within the
EU countries, but are banned in the USA, while fast green (E143) in
banned in the EU but allowed in the USA. Other food additives from
sweeteners and preservatives also have these discrepancies and regula-
tion mismatch [1]. These discrepancies between the most influent food
regulating bodies does not inspire much confidence to the rest of the
countries, which use EFSA’s and the FDA’s regulations to implement
their own laws on food additives.
The joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
and the World Health Organization have (FAO/WHO) implemented in
1961 the Codex Alimentarius (CA), which is a collection of internation-
ally recognized standards, codes, guidelines, and recommendations, to
harmonize all things related to food throughout the world. Many coun-
tries follow the guidance of the CA relative to food additives (colorants
included).
Today, both the EFSA and FDA, under criticism for decades have, in
recent years been trying to increase transparency and safety, and thus
have carried out some tenue efforts for homogenization. EFSA has be-
gun to periodically reassess the safety of food additives, calling upon
research groups to carry out independent research and send their find-
ings. It has also published reviews of food additives, their impact on
health and provided opinions, while also speeding up and legally impos-
ing time periods for approval of new submissions for food additives. Still,
applying for an authorization for a new food additive (dyes included)
is cumbersome and expensive, only accessible to corporations that can
carry out and demonstrate all research on the additive and prove no im-
plication to human health, which is calculated in the millions of euros.
EFSA has also removes or reassessed the exposure of certain additives,
reducing their ADI or removing them from use. The Food Additives and
Flavourings of EFSA is selected upon voluntary applications by scientists
and is valid for 5 years [54].
The FDA has had considerable criticism both from scientists and the
general public due to its lack of reassessment of exposure from con-
sumers. In July 2021, the Chair of the House Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce introduced the
Food Chemical Reassessment Act of 2021, which would require FDA to
reassess all food additives allowed in food in the USA. The representa-
5
Measurement: Food 7 (2022) 100050
Fig. 6. Bubble map visualizing words from
titles, abstracts, and keywords of the 390
publications. Bubble size indicates the num-
ber of publications. Bubble color represents
the citations per publication (CPP). Two
bubbles are closer to each other if the terms
co-appeared more frequently (based on data
from Scopus and elaborated by VOSviewer
software).
tive alleged that most food additives are introduced through the GRAS
loophole and do not undergo actual research on their safety [55]. In
summary, both the FDA and EFSA have their modus operandi, and have
specific ways of interaction with consumers and politicians, and while
the EFSA did show some change in the past decades to improve trust,
the FDA still has some work to do in terms of communication with the
public.
5. Conclusions and future remarks
Food colorants have come a long way since their first use in food,
passing through a considerable number of scandals in the 80′s and
90′s which culminated in withdrawals of use, followed by reintroduc-
tions which spread distrust from consumers towards these molecules,
with special emphasis to food dyes. This distrust somewhat still lingers
and has seen consumers prefer food with natural food dyes (derived
from plants) or based on natural compounds when unprocessed foods
are not available [56]. EFSA or the FDA do not distinguish synthetic
from natural colorants, but in recent years, some colorants from nat-
ural origin have been allowed in the EU. Examples of these colorants,
that are either extracted directly from plants or insects or synthesized
mimicking these natural compounds are annatto, paprika, 𝛽-carotene,
lutein, carotenoids, anthocyanins, betalains, chlorophylls, curcumin and
carminic acids [56]. Currently works are addressed on the exploration
of main sources of natural colorants and their applications [57,58], Al-
though submitting applications for new colorants is quite expensive,
the need for new natural compounds with color fueled by consumer
demands makes this market more profitable and could encourage new
submissions from enterprises and researchers.
It is worth highlighting the importance of analytical methods and
strategies for the quality control of food dyes and studies on this direc-
tion by using emerging techniques and approach such as chemometric
are being carried out [59,60]. In recent years, the advances in nanotech-
nology have also introduced innovation in the food industry, and food
additives are also included in this, namely in the production of nano-
additives that can be used in several foods [61]. Other advancements in
this sector are the use of vegetable residue and algae as food additives
(dyes included). Although already researched for some years, the need
for natural additives and the promotion of sustainability and circularity
in the food sector will improve research and investment in this subsector
and will foster new applications for new natural food colorants [62,[63].
A. Durazzo, M. Carocho, S. Heleno et al.
The future of food dyes seems quite interesting, with higher focus on
research and sustainability, using new technology to develop safe and
higher quality colorants that will make food look more enticing. This
trend and hot topic have been gaining traction, shown in the increasing
numbers of published manuscripts focusing on food colorants.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Author Contributions
All authors have equally contributed to the work.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technol-
ogy (FCT, Portugal) for financial support by national funds FCT/MCTES
to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020); the national funding by FCT, P.I., through
the institutional scientific employment program-contract for L. Barros
contract and M. Carocho and S. Heleno thank FCT for their individual
contracts (CEECIND/00831/2018; CEECIND/03040/2017).
Funding statement
This study did not receive any funding in any form.
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