Aluminum lake, a food coloring agent, is a safe food additive.

The safety of aluminum lake products can be explained from four aspects.

1. In aluminum lakes, aluminum oxide (alumina) actually serves as a carrier material. The alumina content in aluminum lakes typically ranges from 15% to 17%, with a maximum of no more than 18%. The aluminum content in alumina itself is 53%. The typical dosage of aluminum lakes as colorants is 0.01 to 0.1 g/kg, with the aluminum content ranging from 0.0008 to 0.009 g/kg. Compared to the other four aluminum-containing food additives mentioned above, the aluminum content in aluminum lakes is significantly lower.

II. Aluminum lake pigments were first used in Europe and the United States and continue to be used today. The permitted usage levels in these regions far exceed China’s standards; in the U.S., the allowable usage is 1–3 g/kg. Although the U.S. is a country with extremely high safety standards for food additives, it has never conducted toxicological studies on aluminum oxide contained in aluminum lake pigments—because they have consistently regarded aluminum oxide in aluminum lake pigments as completely safe. 
 

Third, since aluminum lakes are insoluble in water, they are mostly used in oil-based foods, which limits their applicability to some extent. They can be used for decorating cakes, creating decorative patterns on cold beverages, and even in chocolates and high-fat confectionery products. In reality, the amount of aluminum ingested by consumers from aluminum lakes is quite small. Moreover, if the use of aluminum lakes were to be discontinued, there currently isn't a safer, non-water-soluble pigment available as a suitable replacement.

Fourth, from a biological perspective, aluminum lake differs from potassium aluminum sulfate, ammonium aluminum sulfate, sodium aluminosilicate, and aluminum octenylsuccinate. Once aluminum lake enters the human body, a portion of it is broken down in the stomach into pigment and aluminum oxide. Moreover, some of the aluminum oxide may further decompose into trivalent aluminum. Therefore, the amount of aluminum actually released is minimal. As for exactly how much aluminum from aluminum lake is absorbed, the reason is that, due to its long-standing high safety profile, no one has ever conducted biological characterization studies on this topic.