Edible pigment is a kind of pigment, that is, a food additive that can change the original color of food to a certain extent when eaten in moderation. Food pigments, like food flavors, can be divided into natural and synthetic.
Main functions:
Many natural foods have their own colors, which can promote people's appetite and increase the secretion of digestive juice, thus facilitating digestion and absorption, and are important sensory indicators of food. However, natural foods are easy to fade or change color during processing and storage. In order to improve the color of food, people often add food pigments in the process of processing food to improve sensory characteristics.
Adding pigment to food is not a patent of modern people. In fact, in ancient times, people knew that red wine was made of monascus pigment. Since Parkin, an Englishman, synthesized the first artificial pigment, aniline violet, in 1856, the synthetic pigment has also appeared on the stage and played a role in improving the color of food.
Edible synthetic pigments are generally bright in color, strong in coloring, good in stability, odorless and tasteless, uniform in quality, easy to dissolve and color, and low in cost, and are widely used for coloring candy, cakes and soft drinks. Lake is widely used to make candy, fatty food and food packaging materials. Although edible natural pigments can be widely used for coloring a variety of foods, their coloring power and stability are generally not as good as those of edible synthetic pigments, and the cost is higher. Inorganic pigments are rarely used, and are mostly limited to food surface coloring.
Edible pigments were originally derived from natural substances, and later replaced by edible synthetic pigments, and then developed into edible natural pigments. The main edible pigments licensed internationally are basically the same. During the period of 1986, 20 kinds of edible natural pigments and 8 kinds of edible synthetic pigments were allowed in China.