식품 중 타르계 색소의 사용실태와 인식조사

Abstract

The current study investigated the usage status of tar dyes that were synthesized from benzene or naphthalene in Coal Tar. Although the tar dyes were originally developed as thecoloring agents of fabrics, they have been used in most of foods due to their low price and high safety. Especially the trend of tar dye usageis rising due to the increasing usage pattern of stimulative colorants in favorite foods that are consumed by juveniles. Therefore, the current study was purposed to grasp the management status of national and international tar dyes registered in the food additive codex and to investigate the recognition of tar dyes in middle school students in Kwangju along with their usage status to provide appropriate educational information and to suggest proper national tar dye management tactics. Regard on the safety securement of food additives, the food additive committee was established in 1954 by FAO and WHO, and the introduction of tar dye management system was set as the recommended category depend upon the countries at the 8th meeting of the committee. Therefore, every country has a different tar dye management system. At the current food additive labeling system, allowable tar dye types, tar dye regulation tactics, labeling principle, the standard of tar dye content and usage standard are not present in our nation, and the usage information labeling in foods is also poor. In addition, since the provision of the intake allowance standard that fits to national status was not adequately established, some of tar dyes which were banned in many other countries are allowed to be used. However, the safety problems of tar dyes related to human health effects have been continuously made in around the world, there are studies that reported some of tar dyes cause liver compliant, thrombocytopenia, asthma and cancer in human. The current study was conducted by subjecting 180 middle school students in Kwangju and found that they consume candies, chocolates and gums most frequently, which were followed by processed milk, snack biscuits, ice creams, instant noodles, hams, sausages, ionic beverages of cola, coffee beverages, pizza (dough), and processed cheese. Especially the extreme consumer level (upper 10%) was found to intake at least 2.09 folds higherthan the average, and the consumption of pizza and processed cheese was investigated to be at least 4.14 folds higher than the average. Referring the food additive intake estimation DB of the FDA, total 169 types of food additives were confirmed to be used at the processed food examples of the current investigation. Among the 9 tar dyes that were established with daily intake allowance level in countries around the world, all of them did not exceed the daily intake allowance level. However, the extreme consumer level (upper 10%) were found to exceed the daily intake allowance level of both of Red Color No. 2 and Red Color No. 3, and heavy intake of Yellow Color No. 4 and Red Color No. 2 was confirmed. Most of juveniles recognized the use of food additives is unstable matter. Especially in case of female students, nearly all of them did not disbelief on the safety. As the cause of such disbelief, the anxiety due to chemical substances, bad comments on these substances and carcinogenicity were pointed out. Contrarily, since they did not know much about the information on tar dyes, they hoped to have an education for the safety of tar dyes. In addition, they hoped to receive education and acquire information on tar dyes from school education than from mass media, which was followed by the labeling in food packages, and by press. As the educational aid, it was found to be in the order of lectures, video tapes, and educational data, and beam projector. Based upon these results, the introduction of enforcing regulation for the currently allowed tar dyes which have been already prohibited or considered to be prohibited in foreign nations due to theirserious safety problems has to be made along with the establishment of evaluation system that fits to the current national status. Especially, the tar dye labeling principle and the labeling of usage information at the front of food package have to be made to recognize the harmfulness of combined intake of tar dyes in the foods which are consumed by juveniles, and the tar dye DB has to be transformed from adult basis to juvenile basis. In addition, information acquisition of food additives for juveniles has to be transformed from mass media to school education to be helpful in their real life, and the development of systematic and various educational programs along with study materials is required.