Toxicity Profile for Brilliant Blue FCF (1999)

Abstract

Brilliant Blue FCF was irritating to the skin of humans and to the eyes of rabbits. Individuals with allergic conditions, including dermatitis, suffered an exacerbation of their symptoms following oral exposure. A low acute oral toxicity was indicated in rats. Studies involving repeated oral administration to mice and rats found liver and possibly kidney effects in mice. No convincing evidence of reproductive toxicity was demonstrated in oral studies in rats and rabbits. Long-term feeding studies in rats and mice, and dermal studies in mice, have failed to generate any convincing evidence of carcinogenicity. Brilliant Blue FCF caused DNA damage in rats treated orally and a variety of genotoxic effects in mammalian cells in culture although in some of these studies at least, the test material may not have been of food-grade quality. Ames bacterial tests have, in general, given no evidence of mutagenicity.