Ultra high performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry screening and mutagenicity evaluation of photodegradation products of Carmoisine (E122) dye in a beverage

Abstract

The present study deals with the separation and identification of the photodegradation products formed when a commercial soft drink containing Carmoisine (E122) dye was exposed to natural sunlight. An ultra high performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated to identify the unknown species of E122. During the study, it was observed that the dye decolourizes rapidly in beverage when compared to model standard solutions. The sunlight irradiation of beverage containing E122 resulted in four photodegradation products as identified by nontarget screening using high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry. Accurate mass measurements were used to identify the elemental composition, and to elucidate the structures of degradation products a software tool was employed. The degradation products (P1-P4) were formed from the interactions of the dye with other ingredients present in the beverage. The toxicity of the degradation products was evaluated on five bacterial strains (TA98, TA100, TA1535, TA1537, and WP2 uvrA pKM101) through an in vitro bacterial reverse mutation assay. The photodegradation products showed strong mutagenic potential in strain TA 100 (without S9) as detected by the Ames assay.

Risk assessment of azo dyes as food additives: Revision and discussion of data gaps toward their improvement

“…The OECD Test Guidelines of Chemicals and Principles of Good Laboratory Practices are internationally recognized standards to ensure reliable, high-quality data and avoid duplicate testing (OECD, 2021). These guidelines 1982,1984,1986 No Artificial azo dyes were evaluated in in vitro (Yamjala et al, 2016;Floriano et al, 2018) and in vivo (Tanaka et al, 2008;Honma, 2015;Bastaki et al, 2017aBastaki et al, , 2017bJoshi & Pancharatna, 2018;Bastaki et al, 2019;Jiang et al, 2020) models, and 40% of the studies evaluated the toxicological effects of tartrazine; 30% of Sunset Yellow FCF, Allura Red AC, and carmoisine; and 10% of amaranth. However, no studies of the other dyes evaluated in this review following OECD guidelines were found.…”

“…Artificial azo dyes were evaluated in in vitro (Yamjala et al., 2016; Floriano et al., 2018) and in vivo (Tanaka et al., 2008; Honma, 2015; Bastaki et al., 2017a, 2017b; Joshi & Pancharatna, 2018; Bastaki et al., 2019; Jiang et al., 2020) models, and 40% of the studies evaluated the toxicological effects of tartrazine; 30% of Sunset Yellow FCF, Allura Red AC, and carmoisine; and 10% of amaranth. However, no studies of the other dyes evaluated in this review following OECD guidelines were found.…”

“…The photodegradation products of a beverage artificially colored by carmoisine were mutagenic only on the bacterial strain (TA 100) of Salmonella typhimurium . However, no mutagenic potential was observed in an aqueous solution (simple model) or when the beverage was kept at room temperature in the dark (Yamjala et al., 2016). Solar irradiation and the addition of ascorbic acid to products artificially colored by azo dyes produce degradation compounds with toxic potential due to the formation of organic species with aromatic structures and adducts with other beverage ingredients (Gosetti et al., 2005, 2008, 2013).…”

Separation, identification and mutagenic assessment of the photodegradation products of Ponceau 4R (E124) in a beverage

“…[14][15][16] Most of the studies in the literature describe the dye mineralisation process and very few have reported the characterization of the degradation products of azo dyes in beverages along with in vitro mutagenicity studies. 17,18 The Ames, or bacterial reverse mutation assay, is one of the most widely used in vitro tests for assessing the mutagenicity of chemicals. The bacterial strains used in this assay have preexisting mutations in various genes with histidine, or tryptophan (in case of Escherichia coli) operon, which code for the biosynthesis of the amino acid histidine or tryptophan.…”