Brilliant Blue is usually a disodium salt with the chemical formula C37H34N2Na2O9S3, and its calcium and potassium salts are also considered permitted food coloring. It is a synthetic dye that is produced from the condensate of 2-formylbenzene sulfonic acid and aniline following oxidation. This substance can be combined with tartrazine to create different shades of green color as well.
This food color, like many other food additives, is used to create blue color or enhance it in products. It is found in candy, ice cream, jelly, canned peas, packaged soups, beverages, blueberry-flavored products, children's medicine, dairy products, and sweets. Brilliant blue is also used to produce soap, shampoos and mouthwashes and many cosmetics products. This substance is also widely used as a tracer material because it performs better than other color tracers due to its color stability, and due to its low toxicity, it does not cause problems for the environment. This material is easily absorbed by acidic soils due to its large particle size and ionic charge, however, the composition of the soil and the speed of water flow also affect the absorption level of Brilliant Blue.
Due to its non-toxic properties, Brilliant Blue is used as a biological dye in medical laboratories and biological research to stain cell walls, bacteria and fungal cells, and does not inhibit the growth of any organism.
The permissible amount of this substance is 150-300 mg depending on the type of food. The safety range of Brilliant Blue in food and medicine is 0.1 mg per kilogram of body weight per day.