The genotoxic properties of the dye CI 16035 Allura Red AC, have been studied in laboratory animals, liver, stomach, glandular system have been examined but no in vivo tests have revealed a genotoxic potential even at maximum doses (1).

The safety of Allra Red AC has been questioned over the years and, paradoxically, this dye is permitted as a food additive but was not acceptable in animal feed. Analyses using a flow cytometer-based micronucleus test in peripheral blood on laboratory animals have shown that Allura Red AC is not genotoxic (2).

Other studies warn of the toxicity of Allura red (3).

There is also a problem of wastewater pollution, which is being addressed with absorbent substances (4).

References_______________________________________________________________________

(1) Honma M. Evaluation of the in vivo genotoxicity of Allura Red AC (Food Red No. 40). Food Chem Toxicol. 2015 Oct;84:270-5. doi: 10.1016/j.fct.2015.09.007. 

(2) Abramsson-Zetterberg L, Ilbäck NG. The synthetic food colouring agent Allura Red AC (E129) is not genotoxic in a flow cytometry-based micronucleus assay in vivo. Food Chem Toxicol. 2013 Sep;59:86-9. doi: 10.1016/j.fct.2013.05.047.

(3) Dinç E, Baydan E, Kanbur M, Onur F. Spectrophotometric multicomponent determination of sunset yellow, tartrazine and allura red in soft drink powder by double divisor-ratio spectra derivative, inverse least-squares and principal component regression methods. Talanta. 2002 Sep 12;58(3):579-94. doi: 10.1016/s0039-9140(02)00320-x.

Gosetti F, Chiuminatto U, Mazzucco E, Calabrese G, Gennaro MC, Marengo E. Non-target screening of Allura Red AC photodegradation products in a beverage through ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with hybrid triple quadrupole/linear ion trap mass spectrometry. Food Chem. 2013 Jan 15;136(2):617-23. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2012.08.019.

(4) Liang TW, Huang CT, Dzung NA, Wang SL. Squid pen chitin chitooligomers as food colorants absorbers. Mar Drugs. 2015 Jan 20;13(1):681-96. doi: 10.3390/md13010681.

Altri importanti studi.

Herrera-García S, Aguirre-Ramírez M, Torres-Pérez J. Comparison between Allura Red dye discoloration by activated carbon and azo bacteria strain. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 Aug;27(23):29688-29696. doi: 10.1007/s11356-020-09584-5.

Abstract. The aim of the present investigation is to compare the efficiency removal of R-40 from aqueous media by a physicochemical process and a biological one.

Jiang LL, Li K, Yan DL, Yang MF, Ma L, Xie LZ. Toxicity Assessment of 4 Azo Dyes in Zebrafish Embryos. Int J Toxicol. 2020 Mar/Apr;39(2):115-123. doi: 10.1177/1091581819898396.

Abstract.  In the present study, we chose 4 azo dyes tartrazine, Sunset Yellow, amaranth, and Allura red and evaluated their developmental toxicity on zebrafish embryos. ....This study reports the developmental toxicity of azo dyes in zebrafish embryos at concentrations higher than the expected human exposures from consuming food and drugs containing azo dyes.