Babu S, Shenolikar I S
Food & Drug Toxicology Research Centre, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad.
Indian J Med Res. 1995 Nov;102:245-9.
Colour is a vital constituent of food which imparts distinct appearance to the food product. Artificial colouring becomes a technological necessity as foods tend to lose their natural shade during processing and storage. Most of the food colours tested in the conventional toxicity experiments showed toxic effects at a very high level of intake i.e., 1-5 per cent in the diet. However, such levels of intake are not normally encountered. Human studies indicated that food colours, (natural or synthetic) can induce wide range of allergic reactions only in sensitive or atopic individuals. Most of the foodborne diseases reported are due to the consumption of non-permitted textile colours or abuse of colours. The Government is pressurised periodically to place a total ban on the use of food colours due to their possible ill effects. It should be realised that surveillance should go hand in hand with legal actions.
颜色是食品的重要组成部分，它赋予食品独特的外观。由于食品在加工和储存过程中往往会失去其自然色泽，人工色素成为一种技术上的必需。在传统毒性实验中测试的大多数食用色素，在摄入量非常高时，即占饮食的1%至5%时，会显示出毒性作用。然而，通常不会遇到如此高的摄入量。人体研究表明，食用色素（天然或合成）只会在敏感或特应性个体中引发广泛的过敏反应。报告的大多数食源性疾病是由于食用了未经许可的纺织色素或滥用色素所致。由于食品色素可能产生的不良影响，政府定期受到施加全面禁止使用食用色素的压力。应该认识到，监管应与法律行动齐头并进。
