Renita A Annam, Gajaria Tejal K, Sathish S, Kumar J Aravind, Lakshmi D Shanthana, Kujawa Joanna, Kujawski Wojciech
Department of Chemical Engineering, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai 600119, India.
Division of Biomedical and Life Sciences, School of Science, Navrachana University, Vadodara 391410, India.
Foods. 2023 Apr 3;12(7):1521. doi: 10.3390/foods12071521.
Color is the prime feature directly associated with the consumer's attraction and choice of their food. The flavor, safety, and nutritional value of any food product are directly associated with the food color. Natural and synthetic colorants (dyes and pigments) have diversified applications in various sectors such as food, feed, pharmaceutical, textiles, cosmetics, and others. Concerning the food industry, different types of natural and synthetic colorants are available in the market. Synthetic food colorants have gained popularity as they are highly stable and cheaply available. Consumers worldwide prefer delightful foodstuffs but are more concerned about the safety of the food. After its disposal, the colloidal particles present in the synthetic colorants do not allow sunlight to penetrate aquatic bodies. This causes a foul smell and turbidity formation and gives a bad appearance. Furthermore, different studies carried out previously have presented the toxicological, carcinogenic effects, hypersensitivity reactions, and behavioral changes linked to the usage of synthetic colorants. Natural food colorings, however, have nutraceutical qualities that are valuable to human health such as curcumin extracted from turmeric and beta-carotene extracted from carrots. In addition, natural colorants have beneficial properties such as excellent antioxidant properties, antimutagenic, anti-inflammatory, antineoplastic, and antiarthritic effects. This review summarizes the sources of natural and synthetic colorants, their production rate, demand, extraction, and characterization of food colorants, their industrial applications, environmental impact, challenges in the sustainable utilization of natural colorants, and their prospects.
颜色是直接与消费者对食物的吸引力和选择相关的主要特征。任何食品的风味、安全性和营养价值都与食品颜色直接相关。天然和合成色素（染料和颜料）在食品、饲料、制药、纺织、化妆品等各个领域都有多样化的应用。在食品工业方面，市场上有不同类型的天然和合成色素。合成食用色素因其高度稳定且价格低廉而受到欢迎。全球消费者都喜欢美味的食品，但更关心食品的安全性。合成色素中的胶体颗粒在排放后会阻止阳光穿透水体。这会导致产生恶臭和形成浑浊，影响外观。此外，先前进行的不同研究表明，合成色素的使用会产生毒理学、致癌作用、过敏反应以及行为变化。然而，天然食用色素具有对人体健康有价值的营养保健特性，例如从姜黄中提取的姜黄素和从胡萝卜中提取的β-胡萝卜素。此外，天然色素还具有有益特性，如出色的抗氧化性能、抗诱变、抗炎、抗肿瘤和抗关节炎作用。本综述总结了天然和合成色素的来源、它们的生产率、需求、食品色素的提取和表征、它们的工业应用、环境影响、天然色素可持续利用面临的挑战以及它们的前景。
