Simultaneous determination of saffron and synthetic dyes in ready-to-cook Iranian barbecued chicken by HPLC

Abstract

Saffron, the dry stigmas of the plant Crocus sativus L., is widely used as a natural food additive for coloring and flavoring of foods. Because of high price, the coloring of food with synthetic food dyes are widely used by food industries and restaurants instead of saffron. This study was carried out to develop a method for extraction and simultaneous determination of saffron, Tartrazine (E102); Quinoline Yellow (E104) and Sunset Yellow (E110) in ready-to-cook Iranian barbecued chicken. During the year 2018, a total of 160 ready-to-cook barbecued chicken samples, including 136 samples from restaurants and 24 samples from food industries were collected from the central part of Iran. The results showed that only 41 samples (25.62%) colored with Saffron and 119 samples (74.38%) colored with other food dyes. The detection rates of synthetic dyes in the samples were 10.0% for Tartrazine, 25.62% for Sunset Yellow, and 18.75% for Quinoline Yellow. The occurrence of Tartrazine was significantly higher (P < .05) in samples of restaurants than those from food industries, while the occurrence of Sunset Yellow and Quinoline Yellow was significantly higher (P < .05) in samples obtained from food industries compared to those obtained from restaurants. In conclusion, the presence of illegal synthetic dyes in ready-to-cook barbecued chicken can be a potential hazard for the health of consumers. Further investigations should be carried out to determine illegal synthetic dyes in other foodstuffs.

Keywords

• saffron
• synthetic food dye
• barbecued chicken
• hplc
• iran