AbstractIn recent years, awareness regarding the quality of food has gradually increased as per the increase in consumer demands. One of the most important parts of the food is alcoholic beverages. Many additives such as caramel, sugar, water, etc. are added to improve the aroma volume, and color of alcoholic beverages. Caramel colors are dark brown substances often added in alcoholic beverages to give the more alluring appearance. However, many metabolites of caramel colors such as 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (5 HMF) are toxic in nature. Many studies show that in controlled concentrations, caramel colors don’t pose any threat. Therefore, it is exigent to monitor the concentration of such additives. Moreover, these colors are present in trace amounts and require extensive sample preparation methods. In the present study, an attempt has been made to identify and detect caramel colors in various factory-made and commercial liquors using derivative Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometry. It was observed that peak maxima of 281 nm of zero order spectra; in first-order spectra peak maxima of 260nm and peak minima of 290 nm can prove to be very effective in the identification of caramel colors. Derivative UV-Vis spectrophotometry thus, has proved to be an effective, non-destructive technique which requires minimal sample preparation.