What is a colorant

Colorants, also known as food pigments, are substances that make food color and improve food color for the main purpose of food coloring.

At present, there are more than 60 kinds of food colorants commonly used in the world, and 46 kinds are allowed in China, which can be divided into two categories: food synthetic colorants and food natural colorants according to their sources and properties. Natural food colorants mainly come from natural pigments, according to their sources.

There are three main categories:

1 plant pigments, such as beet red, turmeric, β-carotene, chlorophyll, etc.

2 animal pigments, such as shellac red, cochineal red, etc.

(3) microorganisms, such as Monascus Hong, etc. The chemically synthesized colorants are mainly synthesized according to some special chemical groups or chromophore, and can be divided into two categories according to their chemical structure: azo pigments (amaranth, carmine, sunset yellow China food flavour wholesale , lemon yellow, new red, temptation red, acid red, etc.) and non-azo pigments (red, brilliant blue, indigo, etc.). Azo pigments can be divided into oil-soluble and water-soluble according to their solubility. At present, most of the synthetic pigments used all over the world are water-soluble azo pigments and their respective aluminum lakes.

The safety of food synthetic colorants has been paid more and more attention, and many countries have strict restrictions on it. There are 10 kinds of synthetic colorants allowed in our country.

Natural colorants are mainly plant colorants, which are not only safe, but also have certain nutritional value and physiological activity. For example, β-carotene colorant, which is widely used in fruit juice drinks, is not only provitamin A China food flavour supplier , but also has significant health functions such as anti-oxidation and anti-aging., National food standard lists it as a food additive that can be used in all kinds of food according to the production needs. Monascus red pigment, which is used for coloring all kinds of food China food Ingredient supplier, also has a significant effect on reducing blood pressure. With the improvement of people's awareness of the safety of food additives, the development of natural China food flavour supplier , nutritious and multi-functional natural colorants has become the development direction of colorants China food Ingredient supplier .