Determination, In-vivo Acute and Sub-chronic Toxicological Assessments of Tartrazine (E-102) Dye as Colour Additive in Selected Confectionaries Consumed in Katsina, Nigeria

Abstract

Synthetic dye additives in food materials could be toxic due to their excessive usage and continuous accumulation in body organelles. Accordingly, there is need for periodical assessments of such dyes to ascertain their concentration in foods. In the present work, ten samples were analyzed quntitatively for Tartrazine (E-102) dye additive in selected confectionaries consumed in Katsina, Nigeria, as well as the in-vivo acute (LD50) and sub-chronic toxicological studies using Wistar albino rats as test animals. The obtained results (mean ± standard deviation) were 24.55 ± 0.03, 30.11 ± 0.07, 73.29 ± 0.06, 54.10 ± 0.08, 96.78 ± 1.64, 68.49 ± 0.19, 25.82 ± 0.07, 29.60 ± 0.03, 30.97 ± 0.04 and 27.86 ± 0.07 mg/kg for analyzed samples of A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I and J, respectively. Furthermore, the acute toxicity result for the administered doses of the dye standard solutions was found to be more than 5000 mg/kg. Also, the in-vivo sub-chronic toxicological results for liver function test showed concentrations (U/L) increased in range for Alkaline phosphatase (1.34 – 18.78), Alanine aminotransferase (6.73 – 24.30) and Aspartate aminotransferase (51.03 – 62.83) variably for all the groups of animals administered with the concentrations range (1000 - 4000 mg/kg) of the dye standard solutions, respectively as compared to that of the control group. Likewise, the kidney function test showed an increase in the concentrations (mg/dL) range of Serum creatinine (0.27 – 2.27) and Serum urea (0.74 – 1.72). Therefore, the results justify the unsafe consumption of the confectioneries having concentration of analyzed dye above the maximum permissible limits (50 mg/kg). Moreover, the in-vivo acute (LD50) and sub-chronic toxicological results affirmed that excessive and continuous consumption of the synthetic dye additives in food materials could lead to higher accumulation in body organs such as liver and kidney, which as a result may eventually leads to their failures.