Scientific understanding of food coloring

Some consumers hold the view that food coloring is bad and harmful to the human body. Let me talk about the topic of coloring.

What is food coloring? It is a type of pigment, that is, a food additive that can be consumed in moderation by humans and can change the original color of food to a certain extent.

As we all know, many natural foods have their own color, which can stimulate people's appetite and increase the secretion of digestive juice, thus facilitating digestion and absorption. It is an important sensory indicator of food.

However, natural foods are prone to fading or discoloration during processing and storage. In order to improve the color of food, people often add food coloring during the processing of food to improve the sensory properties. Since ancient times, my country has had the habit of using red yeast rice to make wine, sauce meat, and red sausage. Food coloring can be divided into two categories: natural food coloring and synthetic food coloring. Natural food coloring is a pigment extracted directly from animal and plant tissues, most of which come from plant tissues, especially fruits and vegetables, such as black bean skin, grape skin, citrus peel, etc. It is highly safe and generally harmless to the human body, and some also have nutritional effects. Although natural pigments can better imitate the color of natural objects and have more natural tones, they are more expensive, have a short shelf life, and are easily affected by metal ions, water quality, pH value, oxidation, light, and temperature. They are generally difficult to disperse, and the dyeing and compatibility between colorants are poor. Regarding the poor stability of natural food pigments, people have also conducted various explorations and made some progress. There are 48 kinds of edible natural pigments approved for use in my country: including natural beta-carotene, beet red, pepper red, cochineal red, etc.

Since the British Parkin synthesized the first artificial pigment, aniline purple, in 1856, synthetic pigments have also come on stage. Artificially synthesized food pigments, such as synthetic amaranth, carmine and lemon yellow. Artificial synthetic pigments have the characteristics of bright color, stable performance, strong coloring power, easy use and low cost. They are widely used in the coloring of candies, cakes and soft drinks. But it has a big disadvantage, that is, it is toxic (toxic, laxative and carcinogenic). These toxicities come from arsenic, lead, copper, phenol, aniline, ether, chloride and sulfate in synthetic pigments, which can cause different degrees of harm to the human body. There are 9 kinds of synthetic pigments used more in China, including amaranth, carmine, lemon yellow, sunset yellow, allure red, etc.

China has strict restrictions on the addition of synthetic pigments to food: GB2760-2014 has regulations on the types of pigments, foods allowed to be eaten, and the maximum amount of use. When using food pigments, you should be careful to use food pigments approved by the state, and the amount and scope of use should also comply with national standards.