Aminocarminic acid in E120-labelled food additives and beverages

An analytical method was developed for investigating aminocarminic acid occurrence in E120-labelled red-coloured-beverages and in E120 additives, with the aim of controlling the purity of the carmine additive in countries where the use of aminocarminic acid is forbidden. The carminic acid and the aminocarminic acid were separated by high-performance liquid chromatography–photodiode array–tandem mass spectrography (HPLC-PDA-MS/MS). The method was statistically validated. The regression lines, ranging from 10 to 100?mg/L, showed r^2?>?0.9996. Recoveries from 97% to 101% were obtained for the fortification level of 50?mg/L; the relative standard deviations did not exceed 3%. The LODs were below 2?mg/L, whereas the LOQs did not exceed 4?mg/L. The method was successfully applied to 27 samples of commercial E120-labelled red-coloured beverages and E120 additives, collected in Italy during quality control investigations conducted by the Ministry. The results demonstrated that more than 50% of the samples contained aminocarminic acid, evidencing the alarming illicit use of this semi-synthetic carmine acid derivative.