Quantitative Analysis and Intake Exposure Assessment of Laccaic Acid in Processed Foods Using HPLC-DAD

Lac color, a water-soluble red food colorant, is obtained from stick lac, a secretion of the insect Laccifer lacca. Its main component is anthraquinone-based laccaic acid, which consists of types A, B, C, D, and E. The objectives of this study were to validate the quantitative analysis of laccaic acid using high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection and to calculate intake exposure. The proposed analytical method was evaluated for various parameters, including specificity, linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantification, accuracy, and precision, and the matrix effect was also considered. The calibration curve showed high linearity (R2 ≥ 0.999) across all matrices, and the method detection limit and method quantification limit of laccaic acid were confirmed to be 1.93 mg/kg and 5.86 mg/kg, respectively. In intraday and inter-day recovery experiments, accuracy was 91.5-100.9%, while precision was 0.8-2.6% RSD, both meeting the AOAC criteria. The matrix effect values ranged from -1.35% to 2.96%. To evaluate laccaic acid intake by food type, various foods distributed throughout Korea were sampled and analyzed. The range of laccaic acid intake levels was 0.0000-0.0027 mg/kg bw/day for the average Korean population (per capita) and 0.0000-0.0306 mg/kg·bw/day for consumers. The developed analytical method is applicable to a wide range of food types, enabling effective monitoring of lac color extracts. It can also be utilized for risk assessment through intake evaluation.