FSSAI flags use of harmful colouring agents in bakery products, especially cakes in Karnataka

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, October 3, 2024: In a new revelation, a few bakery products, especially cake samples collected from bakeries across the state are found to contain harmful colours.

Recently, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) officials, who noticed the dark attractive colour used in cakes, collected a few samples to test if the bakers used only permitted colouring agents.

According to officials, of the samples collected, a few of them were found to contain harmful colouring agents such as Allura red.

“Every month, we are trying to test different categories of food products. This time, our officials noticed that a few cakes being sold in the market had extremely dark colours and hence we decided to test cake samples. Of these, cakes by a few bakeries have been reported to contain Allura red and such harmful colours,” Srinivas K, Commissioner of Food Safety, Karnataka, confirmed.

Many bakers who spoke to DH said that the use of synthetic dyes was a common practice in the preparation of red velvet cakes, pineapple cakes, and others since the colour attracts people, especially children.

“Many of them use natural colours which are permitted and do not cause harm. However, there are a few bakers who try synthetic colours just to make the cakes look attractive,” said the owner of a bakery in Electronic City on conditions of anonymity.

Use of such synthetic colours could cause asthma and allergies among many other health issues, doctors warned.

“A few of them could also be carcinogenic and their consumption in the long term could be harmful, especially for children and young adults,” said Dr Vandana G, a private practitioner.

However, FSSAI officials said that only a small number of samples had such colours and legal action was being initiated against such bakeries.

“There is nothing to panic as of now or stop production of. Only a few bakers were found to be in violation and we will take legal action against them,” the officials said.

 

 

Courtesy: Deccan Herald