‘Perfect storm’ for adulteration of naturally derived food dyes 

By Caroline Scott-Thomas 

excerpt from June 2011 Foodnavigator.com

 There is a perfect storm brewing for increased adulteration of numerous naturally derived food ingredients, and colorants in particular, according to US Pharmacopeia, the standards-setting firm behind the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC).

US Pharmacopeia (USP) is the non-governmental, non-profit authority responsible for setting the standards that make up the FCC, a compendium of ingredient monographs and tests to ensure the quality, purity and safety of more than 1,100 food ingredients.

Speaking to FoodNavigator-USA at the IFT expo in New Orleans this week, USP’s director of food standards Markus Lipp, and vice president of food, dietary supplement and excipient standards James Griffith, said that natural ingredients present specific challenges. With increased demand for natural ingredients, the temptation becomes greater for small and medium-sized manufacturers in particular to cut expensive ingredients with cheaper alternatives.

“To describe standards for naturally derived products is always more challenging,” Lipp said. “There’s always some variation depending on season and geography…It’s a case by case problem but the challenge is to develop specific markers combined with absence of other compounds.”

Griffith said that it could start out innocently enough, with a food company perhaps adding some spirulina powder to another natural green food coloring but failing to list it. However, this opens the door to further adulteration, when the only person who has any idea of the risk to consumers is the adulterer.