Long-term feeding study on chocolate brown FB in rats

Groups of 30 male and 30 female weanling rats were fed for 2 yr on diets containing 0 (control), 1000, 3000, 10,000 or 30,000 ppm Chocolate Brown FB. No effects attributable to treatment were found in mortality, body-weight gain, haematology, serum chemistry, organ weights or incidence of tumours. There was pigment deposition in the renal tubular cells at dietary levels of 3000 ppm and above. Pigment was also found in the Kupffer cells of the liver and in cells of the lymph nodes, spleen and intestinal mucosa of a few female rats at the 30,000 ppm level. No carcinogenic potential was detected in Chocolate Brown FB and the no-untoward-effect level was 1000 ppm (approximately 50 mg/kg/day).