1 CELLULOSE (ISSN: 0969-0239) 22(3): 1883-1891 (2015). 1 DOI: 10.1007/s10570-015-0587-1 2 3 The potential use of cellophane test strips for the quick 4 determination of food colours 5 6 Mária Pávai, Tamás Szabó, and András Paszternák * 7 Institute of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, 8 Hungarian Academy of Sciences 9 1117 Budapest, Magyar tudósok körútja 2., HUNGARY 10 *Corresponding author: paszternak.andras@ttk.mta.hu, Tel./Fax: +36-1-382-6988 11 12 ABSTRACT 13 Concern on different food colours has a rising tendency in the last decades. Many times the 14 labelled ingredients of a food product don’t reflect the real composition. To expose products 15 adulterated by synthetic colorants or to check non-packed foods (like ice cream, fruit drinks 16 sold on the streets) fast and cheap methods are needed. Quick and in situ determination of the 17 colouring agents can be achieved with high sensitivity and reproducibility by using the 18 presented test method based on visual and/or optical characterisation of the cellophane test 19 strip. The selectivity of cellophane to synthetic dyes is used to distinguish natural and 20 synthetic food colours in beverages and foods. 21 KEYWORDS: cellophane, food colour, natural dye, azo-dye, optical characterisation, test 22 strip 23 24 25 26