Vol. 6, Issue 9 (2017)

Author(s):
CS Swetha, R Annie Supriya, A Jagadeesh Babu and T Madhava Rao

Abstract:
Food colours are the substances that were added to enhance the aesthetic appearance of foods which make them more attractive and increases the appetizing value of food products for consumers especially children. Excessive use of permitted synthetic food colours may cause serious health hazards, gastrointestinal diseases like cholera, enteric fever, TB etc. Hence, the present study was mainly aimed to know the awareness among the consumers about the harmful effects of excessive use of permitted and non-permitted food colours in milk and meat products. A survey was conducted with 100 respondents of different age groups with different educational qualifications. The present study revealed that 89% of the respondents were aware of harmful effects due to excessive use of artificial colours; out of which 86% were aware that they are mutagenic and potential carcinogenic which will fall under the category of good percentage of awareness.