Natural pigments come from a wide variety of sources and play an increasingly important role in the food industry due to their excellent coloring properties and potential effects on human health.
Natural Coloring vs. Artificial Coloring
As a very important element in food, pigment plays a pivotal role in the sensory quality of food. Food coloring can be divided into artificial food coloring and natural food coloring. Extensive use of artificial colors can cause potential human health hazards, such as allergic reactions, children with ADHD, etc. This has made natural pigments more and more widely concerned in the food industry.
Natural food coloring is derived from animals, plants and microorganisms in nature, and has an important role in promoting human health, including antioxidant, free radical scavenging activity, and antibacterial, anticancer and preventing some chronic diseases.
4 Sources of Natural Coloring
1. Plants
Phytochromes are produced by a series of biosynthesis in plants, mainly including flavonoids, carotenoids, porphyrins, nitrogen-containing heterocycles, etc., with different chemical properties. They are distributed in various parts of the plant body.
2. Animals
Natural pigments can play an important physiological role in animals, such as serving as a medium for transmitting signals, attracting opposite-sex mates, and also having antioxidant activity, protecting cells and tissues from damage by eliminating harmful free radicals.
Pigments in animals include porphyrins, melanin, pterin, flavonoids, anthraquinones, and the like.
3. Microorganisms
Microbial pigments can be synthesized by themselves or formed by converting certain components during the cultivation process, and are a secondary metabolite. Common types are carotenoids, melanin, quinones, etc. Some of the more typical pigments are monascus pigment, purple bacteriocin and so on.
Microbial pigment production is one of the emerging areas of current research, which has great potential for various industrial applications.
4. Minerals
Mineral pigments are crystalline elements or compounds formed by geological processes and have a long history of use in food, cosmetics and art. Mineral pigments take on different shades depending on their chemical composition or physical structure, such as green chromate, white titanium dioxide, etc.