Application of Electrochemical Sensors in the Determination of Synthetic Dyes in Foods or Beverages and Their Toxicological Effects on Human Health: a Review

The growing consumer demand for easy-to-prepare and better-preserved foods or beverages makes the use of some chemical additives necessary. Among these additives, the synthetic dyes deserve special attention as it can cause damage to human health, considering that the maximum daily intake limit can be easily exceeded from consumption of food and beverage. However, some synthetic dyes, even though toxic, can improve some metabolic processes. Therefore, the development of accurate and sensitive analytical methods applied to determination of dyes in food and beverage is important. In this sense, the application of electrochemical methods deserves special attention once they present advantages such as low cost, high sensitivity, short time of analysis, and, in some cases, analyte extraction or sample pre-treatment is not needed. Considering the importance of this topic, this review describes the functionalities and the toxicological effects of dyes, as well as their determinations by electrochemical techniques, highlighting the different sensors applied.