Immunological studies on tartrazine and its metabolites. I. Animal studies.

Tartrazine is occasionally associated with some clinical changes which have been attributed to allergy. In tests on laboratory animals with tartrazine and its metabolites by methods which should have detected potential to induce antibody formation, no antibodies were detected except by methods which are artificial in terms of human exposure. Similarly, laboratory methods have shown that the metabolites of tartrazine, and in some cases tartrazine itself, can induce contact sensitization in guinea pigs, although there is little evidence that tartrazine can induce similar changes in man.