Everything You Must Know About The Different Natural Food Colors
By kelvin
All-natural food colors are extracted from various sources like plants, fruits, vegetables, minerals, and other natural sources that are edible. When added to food or drink, these food colors impart specific colors. Natural food colors are extracted from edible natural sources and other food items via chemical or physical extraction. Once the extraction has been done, the components are segregated to find the specific components responsible for importing color. Natural food colors are available in various forms like powders, liquids, pastes, and gels. Food coloring can be used in the case of commercial food production as well as domestic cooking. Check out Natural Candy Food Color supplier to buy natural food colors.
Common Natural Food Colors
Anthocyanins
Anthocyanin is primarily a water-soluble pigment responsible for providing very attractive purple, red and blue colors to food items. Anthocyanin is the primary reason behind the attractive colors seen in many vegetables, fruits, and flowers. They are extremely sensitive to changes in pH. Thus, they are bright red in strongly acidic conditions, and they turn blue when the pH increases. Anthocyanins are primarily used to provide color to jams, sugar confectionery, and drinks.
Betanin
Betanin is extracted from the beetroot plant. It is water-soluble. However, it has limited levels of stability if exposed to heat, oxygen, and light. Betanin is suited for use in the case of dried, frozen, and other products with a short shelf life like yogurt and ice creams.
Carminic acid
Carminic acid is a water-soluble pigment. It is also referred to as Carmine. It is derived from a female cochineal insect. It was introduced into the European continent by the Aztecs. The advantage of carminic acid is that it is very stable when exposed to oxygen, light, and heat. Carminic acid is used for adding colors to meat products and alcoholic beverages.
Chlorophyllin or chlorophyll
There’s a high chance that you must have already heard of this pigment. Chlorophyll is a part of all green plants. It is responsible for making the plants green. It is an oil-soluble color. Chlorophyllin is also water-soluble and comparatively stable when exposed to light and heat. Chlorophyll is primarily used in two products, dairy and sugar confectionery.
Carotenoids
Carotenoids provide red, yellow, and orange colors. Over 400 different varieties of carotenoids have been documented. Carotenoids are produced in nature at rates of 1000 million tons every year. Most carotenoid types are heat stable, oil-soluble, and do not get affected by changes in PH.
Turmeric
Turmeric is a spice that is very well known for cooking purposes. The primary component of turmeric is curcumin. Curcumin tends to fade in light but is oil soluble. It has very good heat stability as well. It is responsible for providing lemon with its yellow shade. Turmeric is primarily used in case of soups, confectionery, and Pickles. If you want to get natural food color, check out natural food color distributors USA.