الفهرس 
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Abstract
The term colour additives is used to describe “any dye, pigment of other substance capable of colouring a food, drug or cosmetic on any part of the human body”. Artificial colours are probably the most thoroughly studied compounds in our food supply with regard to toxicology. Nevertheless, a majority of consumer object to artificial colours and additives in general. Deletion of many products, formerly examined and thought to be safe, explains at least partly this attitude. Of eleven artificial colours which had been admitted for decades in the US, four had to be taken off the list within the last 15 years on the basis of new tests and new evidence. There is a complete lack of agreement regarding safe colour additives in the markets of the world. This is due to lack of a universal protocol for pharmacological testing. Also, the situation in any country (U.S. included) is in such a constant state of flux that it is difficult to know at any one time what is approved and impossible to predict what will be suitable in the future. Colour additives may be natural or artificial. The artificial colours permitted in Egypt are Tartrazine, Sunset yellow, Carmoisine, Erythrosine, Azogaranine, Newcoccine, Brilliant black, Brilliant blue, Indigotine, Fast green and Titanium dioxide. There are 10 Coal tar derivatives currently approved by the Food Dye and Colouring Act (FD&C) that are used dyes in food, drink, and colour coding of pills, and tablets. However, some of the permitted colours have been reported as having allergic reactions. The coal tar colour Tartrazine which is very widely used has been associated with severe asthma attacks as well as urticaria. Ingestion of Tartrazine in children is also associated with hyperkinesis and learning impairment. Other studies also concluded that most colourings found in food may cause severe disruptive behaviour and learning problems amongst certain vulnerable children. Such behaviour completely disappeared coupled with improved learning once their ingestion of colours was stopped. The present study was conducted to estimate the level of artificial food colours present in commonly consumed food products and to assess the dietary intake of artificial food colours amongst school children (6-14 years). The study aimed also to assess the mothers knowledge, attitude and practice concerning the ingestion of artificial food colours by their children. The mean daily intake of artificial food colours by 6-14 year old children was estimated on the basis of dietary consumption data of artificially coloured food and analytically determined colour concentration in the foodstuffs ingested. A sample of 1010 students from the six educational districts in Alexandria was included in the study using the stratified random sampling technique. Data were collected by means of interviewing to obtain information about students’ demographic characteristics including age, gender, grade, educational district, type of school, parental education and working status and measurement of body weight for each student. The questionnaire also obtained information about the amount and usual frequency of intake of each food item on the list. The questionnaires also obtained information about the mothers’ knowledge, attitude, practice and observations concerning the ingestion of artificially coloured foods. They were asked about their source of knowledge and the effect of the advise offered by them on the control of the use of food products containing artificial colours. A sample of 308 units of food products from the six districts in Alexandria was collected using simple random method. Analytical Method I- Qualitative determination 1st. Extraction of synthetic water-soluble colours: The method used was based on the ability of water - soluble coal-tar colours to dye wool in acidic or alkaline solution. 2nd. Separation and identification of water - soluble colour: Using paper chromatographic technique. II- Quantitative determination The method used is a quantitative extraction from aqueous solutions into butan-1-01 as ion Pairs with cetylpyridinium chloride. The colouring materials are analysed using reversed phase, ion pair gradient elution HPLC with diode array detection. The overall picture of the results obtained from this study revealed that out of 308 food samples examined, 211 samples contained single colour, 83 samples contained a mixture of two colours, 9 samples contained a mixture of three colours and 5 samples contained a mixture of four colours. The results showed that the artificial colours found singly in descending order of occurrence were Tartrazine, Carmoisine, Sunset yellow, Erythrosine, Newcoccine and Brilliant blue, while Indigotine, Fast green, Brilliant black, Titanium dioxide and Azogaranine were not found. The most abundant two colours combination were Tartrazine and Brilliant blue or Tartrazine and Sunset yellow. The most abundant three colours combination were Sunset yellow, Carmoisine and Newcoccine or Tartrazine, Sunset yellow and Carmoisine. The most abundant four colours combination were Tartrazine, Sunset yellow, Carmoisine and Brilliant blue. Result also revealed that Jelly contained the highest concentration of total artificial food colours (201.240±68.318 mg/kg foodstuff) while, Water ice contained the lowest concentration of total artificial food colours (63.011±26.536 mg/kg foodstuff). On the other hand, Soft drink contained the highest level of total artificial food colours (14.543±4.222 mg/average unit) and Chewing gum contained the lowest concentration of total artificial food colours (0.226±0.139 mg/average unit), indicating that the average weight of the unit affect the artificial colours content where the level of artificial colours in Soft drink in mg/kg was relatively low, the level in mg/average unit was high due to the large unit weight. From the results it was concluded that Carmoisine, Sunset yellow and Newcoccine were the colours that mostly exceeded both national and international approved limit, this may be attributed to their relatively low approved limit which may disagree with the technological need and the food acceptability among consumers. Also, it is important to mention that this study was conducted before the approved limit of artificial food colours become obligatory in the Egyptian standard. Data of the present study revealed that students attending primary schools had more frequent consumption (2 times or more/week) of Lollipop and Toffee than students attending preparatory schools. However, students attending preparatory schools had more frequent consumption (at least 2 times/week) of Boiled sweet and Soft drink than that for students attending primary schools. Differences between primary and preparatory school students in the frequency of intake were statistically significant for all coloured food items except Water ice and Instant powdered drink. Results of the present study showed that the mean intake of artificial food colours was higher for females (1.793±1.694 mg/kg body weight/week) than that of males (1.727±1.635 mg/kg body weight/week) whether in private or public schools, but the difference was not significant. The mean intake of total artificial food colours was significantly higher among students attending private schools (2.509±2.278 mg/kg body weight/week) than that of students attending public schools (1.595±1.446 mg/kg body weight/week). This may be attributed to the high economic level and high purchasing power of private school students. It is quite evident that the mean total intake of artificial food colours by female students was higher than that of male students. However, by age younger males (aged 6 -<8 years) had higher intake of artificial food colours than younger females. According to age, Consumption was higher in young age regardless of gender and this consumption decreased relatively with increasing age. By district, the highest intake of total artificial food colours recorded was in the Middle district (2.246±1.886 mg/kg body weight/week), while the lowest was in the Amria district (1.486±1.413 mg/kg body weight/week). Differences between districts in the intake of artificial food colours were statistically significant. Most of mothers (86.1) were aware that artificial food colours cause allergy, while only 56.3 were aware that artificial food colours cause hyperkinesia. The results of the present study also revealed that mothers’ knowledge regarding adverse effects of artificial food colours did not affect the mean intake of artificial colours of their children where the highest mean intake of artificial food colours whether from confectionery or products other than confectionery was for students whose mothers were aware that artificial food colours cause allergy and hyperkinesia.