Advanced Spectrophotometric Analysis of Sunset Yellow Dye E110 in Commercial Food Samples

Sunset Yellow E110 is one of the famous synthetic food dyes, which belongs to the family of azo dyes and widely used in food industry as additives and nutrient sources. Two highly sensitive and simple spectrophotometric methods are developed for determination of Sunset Yellow E110 in some commercial food samples. The first method is based on redox reaction of Sunset Yellow with copper (II) followed by complex formation. Results indicated the formation of 1:1 metal-dye complex at pH 9.0. The second one is based on its oxidation by alkaline KMnO4 to green manganate species. The two reactions are monitored spectrophotometrically at maximum absorbance 350 and 610 nm for methods I and II, respectively. Variables are carefully studied, and the conditions are optimized. Under the optimized experimental conditions, Beer's Law was obeyed in the concentration ranges 9.05-67.87 and 13.57-72.38 mu g ml(-1) for the two methods, respectively. The apparent molar absorptivities, Sandell's sensitivity, and detection and quantification limits are calculated. Matrix effects are also investigated. The proposed methods are successfully applied for the determination of Sunset Yellow dye in commercial food products. The concentration level of the dye is found to be within the safe recommended limits.