Retrospective analysis for the identification of 4-aminocarminic acid photo-degradation products in beverages

This article deals with the identification of the photo-degradation products of 4-aminocarminic acid potentially present in commercial beverages. Sixteen beverages of different composition but all containing the E120 dye were previously analysed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) coupled with quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry to identify the common degradation products of the E120 dye. Since it is plausible to find unauthorised 4-aminocarminic acid in beverages which report generic E120 dye on the label, retrospective analysis was employed here not only to search for the possible presence of 4-aminocarminic acid but also to investigate the potential formation of photo-degradation products derived from this compound. For this purpose, a statistical approach based on Student’s t-test was used to compare the degraded beverages containing 4-aminocarminic acid with all the others. Five degradation products were identified and their structures were elucidated on the basis of the high-accuracy and high-resolution of mass and mass/mass spectra. The toxicity of the degradation products was evaluated through the Ames Salmonella/microsome mutagenicity assay. No evidence of mutagenicity was obtained for the beverages subjected or not to irradiation, whereas a toxic effect of the 4-aminocarminic acid standard solution already at 100.0 µg l⁻¹ was found. This leads, once again, to the conclusion that the toxicity study must be carried out on the beverages in order to take into account of all the possible masking/protection interactions among the ingredients.