Rapid qualitative and quantitative determination of food colorants by both Raman spectra and Surface-enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS)

•Flower-shaped silver nanostructures obtained were used as stable SERS substrates with high SERS activity.•SERS spectroscopy of four different food colorants were analyzed and the characteristic bands were identified.•An improved principle component analysis (PCA) was used for four different food colorants detection, at concentrations down to about 10−8 M.

Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) spectroscopy technology is widely used in materials analysis, environmental monitoring, biomedical, food security and other fields. Flower-shaped silver nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized by a simple aqueous phase silver nitrate reduction by ascorbic acid in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) surfactant. The nanoparticles diameters were adjusted from 450 to 1000 nm with surface protrusions up to 10-25 nm. The flower-shaped silver nanostructures obtained were used as stable SERS substrates with high SERS activity for detecting Rhodamine 6G (R6G), at a concentration of only 10−9 mol/L, where the SERS signal is still clear. SERS spectroscopy of four different food colorants (e.g. food blue, tartrazine, sunset yellow, acid red) were analysed and the characteristic bands were identified. An improved principle component analysis (PCA) was used for four different food colorants detection, at concentrations down to about 10−8 mol/L. Thus, the LOD of food blue, tartrazine, sunset yellow and acid red are 79.285 μg/L, 5.3436 μg/L, 45.238 μg/L and 50.244 μg/L, respectively.