Visual Detection of Sudan-IV Dye in Culinary Spices by Plasmon Resonance Light Scattering

Abstract

Detection of food adulteration is becoming a matter of concern for ensuring proper health of the people. Culinary spices are commonly used in most of the food items, which mostly contain adulterants like Sudan dyes. Sudan dyes has been classified as category III carcinogens which even if present in minute preparation in food than can cause serious health hazards. This work conducts a feasibility study and proposes a novel method enabling the visual detection of Sudan dyes successfully in commercial spices. A method for quantification of Sudan dyes present in culinary spices based on Plasmon Resonance Light Scattering has been devised which can successfully detect presence of Sudan at sub ppm levels. The method proposed in this study excludes the cumbersome separation step as required in other HPLC based methods. In addition, it provides visual evidence of the presence of adulterant in the food samples. The technique can be extended for reliable and rapid detection of adulterants in food products.