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Food Additives: Food Colorings

Release time:

Jul 02,2023

　　Food additive manufacturers produce a wide variety of additives, and food colorants are one of them. According to relevant experts, food colorants are a type of pigment—food additives that can be consumed in moderate amounts by humans and that alter the original color of food to some extent.
　　Adding colorants to food is not a modern invention—indeed, even in ancient times, people knew how to use red yeast pigment to make red wine. Since 1856, when the British chemist Perkin synthesized an artificial colorant—magenta—aniline purple—synthetic colorants have also entered the scene, playing a key role in enhancing the visual appeal of foods.
　　Synthetic food colorants generally exhibit bright hues, strong coloring power, good stability, are odorless and tasteless, have uniform quality, dissolve easily, and allow for easy color mixing. Moreover, they are inexpensive and widely used for coloring candies, pastries, soft drinks, and other food products. Lake colors are extensively employed in the manufacture of candies, fat-based foods, and food packaging materials. Although natural food colorants can be widely used for coloring various foods, their coloring power and stability typically fall short of those of synthetic food colorants, and they tend to be more expensive. Inorganic colorants are rarely used and are mostly confined to surface coloring of foods.
　　Food colorants originally derived from natural sources were once largely replaced by synthetic food colorants, but have since shifted again toward the use of natural food colorants. The major food colorants permitted for use in various countries around the world are broadly consistent. In 1986, China approved 20 types of natural food colorants and 8 types of synthetic food colorants for use.

Stock Preparation Notice

The prominent role of thickeners in food

Stock Preparation Notice

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