Food Coloring Chemicals

Food coloring plays a crucial role in the food industry, enhancing the visual appeal of products and influencing consumer perception. The use of colorants is widespread, ranging from beverages and candies to baked goods and savory snacks. Food coloring can be classified into synthetic and natural types, each with distinct properties and applications. Below are some of the most common chemicals used in food coloring:

1. Tartrazine (Yellow No. 5): A widely used synthetic lemon-yellow dye, tartrazine imparts vibrant color to products like soft drinks, candies, and processed foods. While deemed safe by regulatory agencies, it has been linked to hyperactivity in sensitive individuals, prompting some manufacturers to seek alternatives.

2. Allura Red AC (Red No. 40): This red azo dye is popular in soft drinks, candies, and baked goods. It is among the most commonly used synthetic dyes but has faced scrutiny over potential allergic reactions in sensitive populations.

3. Sunset Yellow FCF (Yellow No. 6): An orange-yellow synthetic dye, sunset yellow is used in snacks, desserts, and beverages. It is subject to strict regulation due to concerns over its link to hyperactivity in children.

4. Brilliant Blue FCF (Blue No. 1): Found in ice creams, candies, and beverages, this synthetic blue dye is appreciated for its stability and brightness. Its safety has been established, though debates on synthetic dyes’ long-term health effects continue.

5. Erythrosine (Red No. 3): A cherry-pink dye, erythrosine is commonly used in candies, cake decorations, and some medications. It has faced restrictions in certain applications due to potential thyroid effects observed in animal studies.

6. Indigo Carmine (Blue No. 2): This deep blue dye is used in candies, beverages, and baked goods. It is approved for food use but monitored for allergic reactions in sensitive individuals.

7. Annatto: Derived from achiote seeds, this natural orange-red dye is used in cheese, butter, and snacks. It is a preferred alternative to synthetic dyes for its natural origin and minimal health concerns.

8. Carmine: Extracted from cochineal insects, carmine produces a vivid red hue. Common in yogurts, candies, and cosmetics, it’s favored for its natural origin but poses allergenic risks to some consumers.

9. Chlorophyll: A green pigment sourced from plants, chlorophyll is used in beverages, ice creams, and sauces. It offers a natural option for green coloring with added health benefits like potential antioxidant properties.

10. Curcumin: Extracted from turmeric, this yellow pigment is widely used in mustard, pickles, and soups. Known for its anti-inflammatory properties, curcumin is a popular choice for natural food coloring.

While synthetic dyes offer vibrant, long-lasting colors, their potential health risks have spurred interest in natural alternatives. Regulatory bodies like the FDA and EFSA rigorously evaluate and monitor food colorants to ensure consumer safety. Growing consumer awareness is driving innovation in plant-based and sustainable color sources, shaping the future of the food industry.
Food Coloring Chemicals

Riboflavin as food coloring

Riboflavin is a nutrient necessary for maintaining good health in humans and animals. It is also commonly referred to as vitamin B2.

Riboflavin occurs as a yellow to orange-yellow, crystalline powder. Riboflavin (vitamin B2) is a water-soluble vitamin. It is synthesized by all plants and many microorganisms, but it is not produced by higher animals.

Riboflavin is widely used as an additive to foodstuffs and feedstuffs. It is used in foods predominantly for fortification. It has E number 101. Riboflavin has a distinctive yellow color and it fluoresce's when exposed to ultraviolet light. However, riboflavin is degraded by both ultraviolet and visible light, so food supplements colored with riboflavin should be protected from light.

Riboflavin can be used to color convenient foods, soft drinks, cheese and cheese products, dairy products, bakery goods, fish products, canned fruits and vegetables, confectionery, desert powder, sherbets, jams and jellies, soups, mayonnaise and salad dressing, fats and oils, mustard and flavorings.

Riboflavin is important for the growth, development, and function of the cells in human body. It also helps turn the food eaten into the energy needed.
Riboflavin as food coloring

Annato: the oldest coloring

Annatto is one of the oldest colorants, dating back to antiquity for coloring food, cosmetics and textiles. Annatto is the orange-yellow, oil-soluble natural pigment extracted form the pericarp of the seeds of the tropical shrub Bixa orellana.

Annatto has been used as a colorant, especially in cheese and other food products, for more than 2 centuries. The main pigments in annatto are bixin and norbixin. Bixin is the monomethyl ester of a dicarboxyl carotenoid. Norbixin is the saponified form, a dicarboxyl acid of the same carotenoid.

Processing is primarily done by abrading off of the pigment in an appropriate suspending agent for production of the native bixin from the seed. Processing may alternatively involve aqueous alkaline hydrolysis with simultaneous production of norbixin. Annatto is available in both water soluble and oil soluble liquids and powders.

Annatto and its extracts are designated collectively as E160b and are permitted as a food additive in the European Union and elsewhere, and have widespread use in the food industry for the colouring of many commodities including flour and sugar confectionery, dairy and savoury products, soft drinks and fish.

Annato: the oldest coloring 

Natural food dyes of lycopene

Human main dietary source of lycopene is the ripe red tomato. Lycopene is also the main pigment in paprika, grapefruit, and rose hip.

Lycopene is an excellent natural coloring agent, covering the range of yellow, through orange, and up to red. As yellow-to-orange color, it is several times more potent than β–carotene, while as red color, lycopene is unmatched by any other natural coloring pigment available to the food industry.

Red ripe tomatoes

Thus, lycopene performs as dual functions in the formulation of food products, serving both as a bioactive ingredient and as a natural food color additive. Lycopene is used as a food coloring in the broad range of food categories for which it is permitted, including beverages, confectionery, causes, snacks, seafood products, soups and dietary supplements.

Lycopene is an intermediate in the biosynthesis of all dicylcic carotenoids, including β–carotene. In principle therefore, for commercial production, blocking the cyclization reaction and the cyclase enzyme by mutation or inhibition will led to the accumulation of lycopene.
Natural food dyes of lycopene

Coloring in confectionery

When color is added to a food the label must state artificial colored or artificial color added.  The term natural color may not be used even if the color is derived from nature.

Manufacturers use food coloring to create a colorful identity to foods that would otherwise be virtually colorless or to provide a colorful appearance to certain ‘fun foods’.

Synthetic food colorings and dyes are often used to enhance the appearance of confectionery items like sugar added cereals, candies, chocolate products and other products. Color stability also is an important aspect of the storage quality of these products.

Throughout the years the federal government has passed a variety of laws and guidelines a regarding artificial food coloring, including the prohibition of the ‘use of poisonous or deleterious colors in confectionery and the coloring or staining of food to conceal damage or inferiority’. The presence of non permitted coloring and misbranding by the incorrect listing of ingredients a constitute grounds for detention or seizure.

The FDA maintains a list of safe and harmless food dyes that can legally be used and sold. Fruit-type confectionery colors containing any artificial fruit flavor must be labeled as ‘artificial flavored’ in the manner specified by the regulations.

Because food colorings and flavorings are common to most candy, many observers believe that artificial colors may cause hyperactivity.
Coloring in confectionery 

Food Coloring

Food Coloring
Color is important to many food, both those that are unprocessed and those that are manufactured. Together with flavor and texture, color plays an important role in food acceptability.

In addition, color may provide an indication of chemical changes in a food, such as browning and caramelization.

For a few clear liquid foods, such as oils and beverages, color is mainly a matter of transmission of light.

Other foods are opaque - they derive their color mostly from reflection.

Some hues occur frequently in foods provided by nature. Green, red, pink, orange, yellow and purple are common. Blue green is rare and no blues exist at all.

It is instructive to consider the fundamental natural rules governing the colors of the world around us and the food we eat.

Color is the general name for all sensations arising from the activity of the retina of the eye. When light reaches the retina, the eye’s neural mechanism responds, signaling color among other things.

Light is the radiant energy in t wavelength range of about 400 to 800 nm. According to this definition color cannot be studied without considering the human sensory system.

The color perceived when the eye views an illuminated object is related to the following three factors: the spectral composition of the light source, the chemical and physical characteristics of the object and the spectral sensitivity properties of the eye.

To evaluate the properties of the object we must standardize the other two factors. Fortunately, the characteristics of different people’s eyes for viewing colors are fairly uniform; it is not too difficult to replace the eye by some instrumental sensor or photocell that can provide consistent results.

There are several systems of color classification; the most important is the CIE system (Commission International de I’Eclairage –International Commission on Illumination. Other systems used to describe food color are the Munsell, Hunter and Lovibond systems.

Added colorants in foods dates from at least 3,700 BC when Egyptians were coloring their candy.

Sugar imported into Europe from Alexandra in the twelfth century was colored with madder and kermes, but the use of cochineal probably predates this.

Awareness of browning would have predated the use of color additives. For an extended shelf life in fresh fruits and vegetables, enzymatic browning must be eliminated.

Foods depending on enzymatic browning for their quality include black tea, dates, prunes and raisin, Non enzymatic browning provides many of the flavors of baking and cooking.
Food Coloring