Food color knowledge

Food coloring, which is a type of pigment, is a food additive that can be eaten by people in a modest amount to make the food change its original color to some extent. Food colorings are also divided into natural and artificial flavors, just like food essences.

The color of food is an important factor in the quality of food. People often use food additives—food colorings—to make foods. The food colorings used are two major categories: natural food colorings and synthetic food colorings. Before the British invented the first synthetic food pigment aniline violet in 1850, people colored it with natural pigments. As early as the 10th century AD, the ancients began to use the plant-based natural pigments to color foods. The earliest pigments used were the Alyssa of Great Britain. At that time, they used rose pigments to make rose purple sweets. Later, the American people of the Pergamon and Amonteks successively extracted cochineal red from the female cochineal for food coloring. Since ancient times, China has had the habit of red rice wine, sauce, and sausage. In the southwest area, rice is eaten with yam rice leaves and glutinous rice in the southern area. Food coloring and food additives that improve the color of foods. There are natural and synthetic points. Naturally-used pigments are pigments that are directly extracted from animal and plant tissues and are generally harmless to the human body, such as red yeast rice, chlorophyll, curcumin, carotene, amaranth, and sugar color. Synthetic food pigments are made from aniline dyes separated from coal tar. They are also called coal tar pigments or aniline pigments, such as synthetic amaranth, carmine and lemon yellow. These artificially synthesized pigments are harmful to the human body because they are easy to induce poisoning, diarrhea, and even cancer, so they cannot be used as much or as little as possible.

Colorants can be divided into synthetic colorants and natural colorants by source. According to the structure, synthetic colorants can also be classified as azo, oxygen oximes and diphenylmethanes; natural colorants can be further divided into pyrrole, polyenes, ketones, quinones and polyphenols. According to the solubility of colorants can be divided into fat-soluble colorants and water-soluble colorants.

Natural edible natural colorants Natural edible natural colorants mainly refer to the pigments extracted from animal and plant tissues, mostly plant pigments, including microbial pigments, animal pigments and inorganic pigments. The vast majority come from plant tissues, especially fruits and vegetables. High safety, and some also have nutritional effects (such as β-carotene). According to the source can be divided into plant pigments (such as chlorophyll, etc.), animal pigments (such as purplish red, etc.), microbial pigments (such as monascus pigment, etc.). In addition, it can also include certain inorganic pigments. According to the structure can be divided into phylloline (such as chlorophyll), isoprene (such as β-carotene), polyphenols (such as anthocyanins), ketones (such as curcumin), steroids (such as lac Red) and beet red, caramel, etc.

The color of natural colorants is easily affected by metal ions, water quality, pH value, oxidation, light, and temperature. Generally, it is difficult to disperse, the compatibility between dyeing and coloring agents is poor, and the price is high.

By the end of 1998, there were a total of 48 kinds of edible natural pigments approved for use by the state, including natural beta-carotene, beet red, turmeric, safflower yellow, red huckleberry orange, red pepper, chili orange, and caramel (without ammonia production. ), caramel color production of caramel color (plus ammonia production), red rice red, chrysanthemum yellow extract, black bean red, sorghum red, corn yellow, radish red; cocoa shell color, red yeast rice, red yeast red, red lotus flower, Blackcurrant red, Gardenia yellow, Gardenia, Seabuckthorn yellow, Roselle red, Acorn shell brown, NP red, Duohui brown, Mulberry red, Natural mustard red, Rosa laevigata; Curcumin, peanut farmer Red, grape skin red; blue ingot fruit red; algae blue, plant carbon black, dense Mongolian yellow, purpurea; tea yellow pigment: tea green pigment, citrus yellow, margarine (red lignin / red lignin) rouge Insect red, iron oxide (black) and so on. Commonly used natural coloring agents are red pepper, beet red, red koji, cochineal red, sorghum red, sodium copper chlorophyllin, turmeric, gardenia yellow, carotene, phycocyanin, cocoa pigment, caramel color and so on. Characteristics of natural pigments: It is inferior to synthetic pigments in terms of pigment content and stability. Because they come from fruits, vegetables, plants and animals, they are safer to the human body. They can better imitate the natural color, have a more natural tone, have higher costs, and have a short shelf life.

Synthetic coloring agents for artificial coloring Synthetic coloring agents are mainly chemical products. It is mainly organic pigments obtained through chemical synthesis. According to the chemical structure can be divided into azo pigments and non-azo pigments. According to solubility can be divided into oil-soluble pigments and water-soluble pigments. Oil-soluble pigments are more toxic and are no longer used in food coloring in countries. There is also a type of lake, which is a special colorant made by depositing a water-soluble pigment on a permissible insoluble substrate, may contain different pure pigments (10 to 40%) and moisture, and is insoluble in most solvents. The synthetic pigments listed in China's Hygienic Standards for the Use of Food Additives (GB2760-1996) include carmine, amaranth, sunset yellow, peony red, lemon yellow, new red, indigo, brilliant blue, titanium dioxide (white pigment) and so on. Compared with natural pigments, synthetic pigments are more vivid in color, less discolored, and less expensive.

By the end of 1998, the synthetic pigments approved and approved by the State were: Amaranth, Amaranth Lake, Carmine, Carmine Aluminium Lake, Red Medicine Red; Red Aluminum Lake, New Red, New Red Aluminum precipitate. Lemon yellow, lemon yellow aluminum lake, sunset yellow, sunset yellow aluminum lake, bright blue; bright blue aluminum lake, Cymbidium, Cyperus aluminum lake, copper sodium chlorophyll, B-Caro B, titanium dioxide , temptation red; acid red, a total of 21 species. There are 9 kinds of synthetic pigments used in China, including amaranth, carmine, new red, lemon yellow, sunset yellow, indigo, bright blue, red, temptation red and so on. The characteristics of artificial colors: bright color; multi-tone; stable performance; strong coloring power; fastness; easy color; easy to use; low cost; widely used; dosage and scope of use are strictly limited.