Snapshot

Coloring foods, sometimes referred to as coloring foodstuffs, are ingredients that are designed to deliver color to a food or beverage; however, they are not labeled as additives. Worldwide consumers seek most delightful and appealing foodstuffs, at the same time they require safer, more nutritious and healthier products. Food colorants are among the most interesting features at industrial and scientific level. In fact, due to increasing demands by consumers, pronounced advances and opportunities have been achieved in food industry. Apart from the ancient use of food additives, natural food colorants have 7 received a particular attention, not only for their potent ability to color foods, but also for providing some healthy benefits.

Synthetic food colorants are widely used to improve the attractiveness of numerous foodstuffs. In spite a considerable amount of them have been increasingly removed and even prohibited in the food industry blue, red to orange, yellow and green and white synthetic food colorants are among the most commonly used and studied in terms of security, side effects, toxicity at short, medium and long terms, as well as health impact.

With the increasing demand by consumers for naturally-derived and safer food ingredients, absent of toxic side effects and even health promoters, numerous experiments have been carried out to provide more effective and selective food colorants.