Survey on food dyes additives in food products commonly consumed by Algerian children.

Background: Children are generally attracted to colorful foods. However, some food dyes are suspected of exacerbating the activity of children and inducing other health problems that can reach reprotoxicity and carcinogenicity.

Objective: This study aims to explore the presence of dyes such as E102, E104, E110, E121, E122, E123, E124, E127, E129, E132, E133, E143 and E171 in food products widely consumed by children in Algeria notably sweets and chocolates, beverages and ice creams, yogurts and biscuits.

Material and methods: This work was carried out on 228 products including 57 biscuits, 47 drinks and ice creams, 20 yogurts and 104 sweets and chocolates. Information mentioned on the composition label of this products were recorded to determine the presence of studied dyes.

Results: Here, we report the abundance of the yellow dyes E102 (24.1%) and E110 (18%) in the tested products. Also, apart from E121, all the other assessed dyes were found. Sweets and chocolates are the products containing the most studied dyes. The analysis of the presence of combinations of these dyes shows that 7% of analyzed foods contain 2 dyes in their composition while 20% of the products contain at least 3 dyes at the same time. Additionally, 37.5% of sweets and chocolates contain a combination of at least 3 dyes in their ingredient list.

Conclusions: In overall, except the E121, all assessed dyes were identified on the labels of food products widely consumed by children which encourage parents to be made aware of the risks associated with the ingestion of omnipresent dyes in children's diets.