Tartrazine (INS 102) in carbonated drinks: preliminary dietary exposure and risk characterisation among the Algerian adult population.

Abstract

Tartrazine (INS 102) remains among the mono-azoic food dyes most frequently incorporated into processed foods. To date, no study has focused on human exposure in the Algerian adult population to azo dyes, particularly Tartrazine. This study aimed to quantify Tartrazine in 33 carbonated drinks from the local market using a validated reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography method with UV/VIS detector (RP-HPLC UV/VIS), estimate dietary exposure, and characterise the associated risk. Tartrazine levels ranged from 6.1 to 111.2 mg.L-1 of which four carbonated drinks from two brands exceeded the Codex maximum permitted level of 100 mg.L-1, showing values between 104 and 111.2 mg.L-1. In both low and high exposure scenarios, average individual estimated and chronic daily intakes (EDIi and CDIi) for the study population subsets remained below 13% of the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI). At the highest percentiles, values reached 17% and 15.6%, respectively. Average individual hazard quotients (HQi) were well below 1, with HQi ranging from 0.008 to 0.121. These preliminary findings suggest that Tartrazine intake from carbonated drinks does not pose any health risk to Algerian adults. Further studies are needed to comprehensively estimate the total Tartrazine intake from additional food categories and to assess cumulative exposure to multiple azo dyes commonly incorporated into beverages.