EFSA Confirms Caramel Color Safety

PARMA, ItalyThe European Food Safety Authoritys (EFSA) scientific panel on food additives and nutrient sources added to food (ANS) has completed a safety review of caramel colors and concluded they are not carginogenic or genotoxic and there is no evidence to show that they have any adverse effects on human reproduction or for the developing child.

The panel also revised the previously established Acceptable Daily Intakes (ADIs) of 300 mg per kg body weight per day (mg/kg bw/day) applicable to all four colors. The panel set a more restrictive ADI of 100 mg/kg bw/day for caramel E150c.

The Panel decided to set a lower ADI for caramel E 150c to take into account uncertainties related to possible effects on the immune system of one of its constituents, 2-acetyl-4-tetrahydroxibutylimidazole (THI). This means that within the group ADI of 300 mg/kg bw/day established for the four caramel colours, only 100 mg/kg bw/day can be made up by E150c," said Dr. John Christian Larsen, Chair of the ANS Panel.

The Panel also noted adults and children who are high consumers of foods containing these colors could exceed the ADIs established for three of these colors (E150a, E150c, E150d) if they are used at the maximum levels reported by industry. In order to keep consumer exposure to the byproducts of caramel colors as low as possible, the panel said it would be prudent to keep their levels in caramel colors as low as technologically feasible.