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Awareness on artificial colour in food preparation and its health consequences among children

Sahbanathul Missiriya Jalal

Food is a nourishing substance serves as the basic need of human. Adding colours to the food gives attraction to the people especially children. It enhances the aesthetics and induces appetite. Even though there are many natural and traditional food colours available, still, some in the shops, restaurants, and processed food manufacturers preferred to use artificial colours. Many food items are using much non-permissible artificial food colour, which may create serious health hazards and life-threatening conditions. Hence, the present research was conducted to find the level of awareness among the children about the excessive use of colours in food and its harmful effects on health. A survey was conducted among 252 children, aged between 13 to 17 years old including both genders with different educational grades. The children residing in Al-Ahsa were selected by random sampling. The data was collected by using a structured questionnaire. The results revealed that 19% of the participants were fully aware of health consequences due to artificial colours added in food, 23% of children had moderately aware of ill-effects of food colour, and the remaining 58% of children were poorly aware of that. It is very essential to create awareness among children about the artificial colours, toxic metals in their food, and their health consequences. There should be vigilance on food manufacturing places to find the usage of food colours at permissible level. The parents also should be educated to monitor their children to avoid consuming coloued foods.