Tiered intake assessment for food colours

Area of Science:

• Food science and toxicology
• Dietary exposure assessment
• Risk assessment of food additives

Background:

• Accurate estimation of food additive intake is crucial for safety assessments.
• Global variations in food consumption and additive use necessitate region-specific exposure evaluations.
• Previous assessments often relied on conservative assumptions, potentially overestimating exposure.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and apply a tiered approach for estimating maximum potential global intake of eleven food colors in non-alcoholic beverages.
• To assess the safety of synthetic and natural food colors at proposed use levels across diverse subpopulations.
• To validate the refined budget method as an initial screening tool for prioritizing further intake assessments.

Main Methods:

• Employed a tiered intake assessment strategy, from conservative default to refined dietary exposure analysis.
• Utilized US and UK national food consumption surveys (NHANES and NDNS) for refined exposure estimations.
• Incorporated industry-reported global use levels and market-share data for a comprehensive assessment.

Main Results:

• All estimated intake levels for eleven food colors in non-alcoholic beverages fell below the acceptable daily intake (ADI).
• Strong concordance was observed between the refined budget method and the brand-loyal deterministic approach.
• The refined budget method proved to be a valid first-tier screening tool.

Conclusions:

• The safety of synthetic and natural food colors in beverages at proposed use levels is supported globally.
• The tiered assessment approach, particularly the refined budget method, is effective for prioritizing food colors for detailed safety evaluations.
• This study provides robust evidence for the safety of food colors in beverages under realistic consumption scenarios.