Colour is a key component to enhance the ultimate appetizing value and consumer acceptance towards foods and beverages. Synthetic food colours have been increasingly used than natural food colours by food manufacturers to attain certain properties such as low cost, improved appearance, high colour intensity, more colour stability, and uniformity. Varied foods and beverages available in the market may contain some nonpermitted synthetic colours and overuse of permitted synthetic colours. This may lead to severe health problems such as mutations, cancers, reduced haemoglobin concentrations, and allergic reactions. According to the Food Act, 2011 (No. 26 of 1980), Sri Lanka, only nine synthetic food colours are permitted and the colour concentration cannot exceed 100 ppm as a single component or in combination. This study aims to identify the synthetic food colours in confectioneries and beverages available in Jaffna district, Sri Lanka. Randomly collected 110 samples from eleven Medical Officers Of Health areas in Jaffna district were analyzed by using thin layer chromatography and UV-visible spectrophotometry. According to the results, 100% beverages and 85% confectioneries contained permitted synthetic food colours. Out of all, 7% of the confectioneries did not contain any synthetic food colour and 8% of the confectioneries contained nonpermitted colours which do not comply with any of the permitted synthetic food colours. Tartrazine (E102) (41%) was the most used synthetic food colour in both confectioneries and beverages. Moreover, 60% of the beverages violated the label requirement without including proper colour ingredients. The study concluded that there is a high tendency to use synthetic food colours in confectioneries and beverages and some confectioneries contain unidentified colours including a textile dye. Therefore, the implementation of regulations and awareness programs of food colours for consumers and food manufacturers are highly recommended.

Sri Lanka has been identified as one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots with a rich array of fruits; however, most of them remain underutilized. The present study was carried out to investigate the nutritional composition and to assess the bioactivity of six underutilized fruits collected from three provinces of Sri Lanka. The selected fruit species were Màdan (Syzygium cumini), Maha Karamba (Carissa carandas), Himbutu (Salacia chinensis), Ugurassa (Flacourtia indica), Barbados cherry (Malpighia emarginata), and Ceylon gooseberry (Dovyalis hebecarpa). The proximate composition, total dietary fiber content, mineral content, total phenolic content, and vanillin contents were determined using standard methods. The antioxidant activity of methanolic extracts of fruits was assessed using FRAP and DPPH assays. Uguressa extract exhibited the highest dietary fiber content (12.25 ± 0.29 of fresh fruit weight) while the lowest was observed in Barbados cherry (6.01 ± 1.10 g/100 g). The total phenolic content (TPC) of fruits ranged from 6.8 ± 0.4 to 10.3 ± 0.3 milligram gallic acid equivalents/g fruit. Barbados cherry showed the highest antioxidant activity (AOA) as measured by FRAP (0.022 ± 0.003 mM Fe 2+/g fruit) and the highest vanillin content (2.4 mg/kg). The highest potassium (434.60 ± 0.36 mg/kg), phosphorous (16.69 ± 0.46), and calcium contents (23.43 ± 0.45) were observed in Uguressa. Màdan had the highest content of magnesium (13.25 ± 0.38 mg/kg), sodium (5.28 ± 0.30), iron (0.65 ± 0.12 mg/kg), and aluminum (1.15 ± 0.16 mg/kg). The highest manganese content (0.98 ± 0.18 mg/kg) was observed in Himbutu while the highest copper content was found in Uguressa (0.11 ± 0.04 mg/kg) and Maha Karamba (0.11 ± 0.03 mg/kg). The study reveals that six underutilized fruits tested possess high nutritional value and are rich in antioxidant activity.

Iron fortification is an effective strategy that can be implemented to ensure supply and intake of iron for the public at large. Even though iron-fortified foods are widely available in the Sri Lankan market, the quantification of iron in those foods is not under the regulations of the food authorities in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this study aims to quantify the concentration of iron in selected iron-fortified foods available in the local market and determine their contribution to the recommended daily allowances (RDA) per serving. The iron content in most popular powdered milk, biscuits, and breakfast cereals among the children of 15-16 years in Horana Divisional Secretariat was analyzed using atomic absorption spectroscopy, and its contribution to RDA was calculated. The average iron values of iron-fortified milk powder (IFMP), iron-fortified biscuit (IFB), and iron-fortified breakfast cereals (IFBC) were found to be 18.08 ± 9.53, 7.88 ± 0.07, and 17.78 ± 7.47 mg/100 g, respectively. The average estimated daily intake (EDI) per serving of IFMP, IFB, and IFBC was 3.61 ± 1.75, 2.13 ± 0.06, and 5.60 ± 1.45 mg, respectively. The highest contribution to the RDA can be obtained by a single serving of IFBC. Only less than half of the tested products have compatible iron levels with their labeled information. Iron-fortified foods which were studied have a high amount of iron, and they can make from 5% to 35% contribution to RDAs in young children, adolescents, and adults even by a single serving.

High salt intake elevates the risk of non-communicable diseases such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases and stroke worldwide. Sri Lanka has recorded in 2010 as the country with highest average fish & fish products consumption in South Asia. In the current study, salt in ten types of commonly available dried fish namely; sprats, prawns, smoothbelly sardinella, queen fish, cat fish, sail fish, shark, skipjack tuna, Bombay duck and trenched sardinella was analyzed and determined salt reduction methods with minimal protein loss. Four salt reduction methods were tested; Method 1: washed with water at Room Temperature (RT) for five times; Method 2: washed with water for five times at RT and kept in hot water for 5min; Method 3: washed with water for five times at RT and boiled for 5min; Method 4: washed with water for five times at RT and kept in coconut water for 5min. Using Volhard method, sodium chloride was analyzed while protein was determined using Kjeldahl method. All four methods showed significant reduction of salt level in tested dried fish (p < 0.05). Among the tested salt reduction methods, Method 3 showed the highest salt reduction for all types of dried fish except smoothbelly sardinella and cat fish.The highest salt mean value of 28.8% was recorded in queen fish and the lowest mean value of 12.8% was recorded in smoothbelly sardinella. The highest protein loss was recorded in Method 3. To reduce considerable amount of salt, the easiest and fairly effective method is method 1 except for prawns and Shark. Although higher salt reduction showed in method 2 and 3, they are not recommended due to high protein loss, high energy expenditure and reduction of freshness of dried fish. Method 4 can be applied for all dried fish types because it is economical and reduces considerable amount of salt, removes less amount of protein comparatively. The results revealed that all tested dried fish except smoothbelly sardinella contain significantly high amount of salt (p < 0.05) than the standard value specified (12%) by the Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI).Keywords: Dried fish, protein loss, salt-intake, salt reduction, non-communicable diseases