Consumer exposures to anthocyanins from colour additives, colouring foodstuffs and from natural occurrence in foods

Anthocyanins are responsible for the red/blue colour of grapes, currants, and other fruits and vegetables. They may also be extracted for use as colour additives (E163) or concentrated for use as colouring foods. Consumer exposures have been assessed using data on natural occurrence, use levels and frequencies from food manufacturers and European food consumption data. Intakes from natural occurrence can be up to 4 mg kg bw−1 day−1 at the mean and up to 17 mg kg bw−1 day−1 for children who are high level consumers of red/black berries and small fruits. High-level intakes for children from food colour and colouring food applications lie in the range 0.3–6.3 mg kg bw−1 day−1 and for adults at 0.6–2.8 mg kg bw−1 day−1. Exposures from food colour use and colouring foods separately or combined are therefore lower than those from natural occurrence in foods.

花青素（Anthocyanins）是赋予葡萄、黑加仑及其他果蔬红蓝色泽的核心成分。其亦可被提取用作着色添加剂（E163），或经浓缩后作为着色食品投入使用。研究人员已依托食品生产商提供的天然存在量、使用剂量与使用频率数据，以及欧洲食品消费统计数据，对消费者的花青素暴露水平开展了评估。天然来源的花青素日均摄入量均值可达4毫克每千克体重·天，而对于大量食用红/黑浆果及小型果蔬的儿童群体，其最高摄入量可达17毫克每千克体重·天。通过食品着色剂及着色食品摄入的高剂量花青素，儿童群体的摄入量范围为0.3~6.3毫克每千克体重·天，成人群体则为0.6~2.8毫克每千克体重·天。因此，单独或复合使用食品着色剂与着色食品所带来的花青素暴露量，均低于食品中天然存在的花青素暴露水平。