Carotenoids as Natural Colorful Additives for the Food Industry

The application of natural colorants is increasing in the food industry because they are considered safer and healthier than some synthetic pigments. Natural colorants can improve the organoleptic properties of foodstuffs, provide additional benefits such as enhance their nutritional value and/or extend shelf-life. Plants, fungi, bacteria or algae naturally produce different natural colorants, including carotenoids. These compounds are classified into two main groups: pure hydrocarbon carotenes (α- and β-carotenes, lycopene) and oxygenated derivatives of xanthophylls (lutein, zeaxanthin, astaxanthin, fucoxanthin, cryptoxanthin, etc.). Carotenoids have been related with beneficial properties like antioxidant, antidiabetic, antitumor or antimicrobial, so they are a natural and healthy alternative to the use of synthetic colorants. Thus, it is critical to optimize their extraction, by utilizing novel and green techniques, and their stability through encapsulation processes. This chapter aims to review natural sources of carotenoids, strategies to efficiently extract and produce them and their potential application as food colorants.

Red Tomato Products as an Alternative to Reduce Synthetic Dyes in the Food Industry: A Review

Most dyes used in the food industry are synthetic and can be a health hazard. Red tomato may serve as a natural alternative dye to replace synthetic colorants. This study aimed to review the literature on the addition of red tomato products (powder tomato, paste, freeze-dried, tomato peel powder, tomato pomace) to reduce the usage of synthetic dyes in the food industry. Red tomato products have been used as coloring in pasta, bologna, sausages, cookies, crackers, macaroons, hamburgers, breads, muffins, cheeses, and nuggets. The trans-cis isomerization of lycopene by oxidative processes directly affects the color of the pigment. The lycopene contained in tomato has antioxidant activity and could reduce or eliminate other oxidants and/or synthetic preservatives in food. Moreover, tomatoes in foods have high sensory scores, nutritional appeal, and marketing potential. However, its use as a food colorant has been not extensively explored. Therefore, further studies are still required, especially on the stability of carotenoids in tomatoes used in processed foods.

Bioaccessibility and Cellular Uptake of Carotenoids Extracted from Bactris gasipaes Fruit: Differences between Conventional and Ionic Liquid-Mediated Extraction

Currently, on an industrial scale, synthetic colorants are used in many fields, as well as those extracted with conventional organic solvents (COSs), leading to several environmental issues. Therefore, we developed a sustainable extraction and purification method mediated by ionic liquids (IL), which is considered an alternative high-performance replacement for COSs. Carotenoids are natural pigments with low bioaccessibility (BCT) and bioavailability (BV) but with huge importance to health. To investigate if the BCT and cellular uptake of the carotenoids are modified by the extraction method, we conducted a comparison assay between both extraction procedures (IL vs. COS). For this, we used the Amazonian fruit Bactris gasipaes, a rich source of pro-vitamin A carotenoids, to obtain the extract, which was emulsified and subjected to an in vitro digestion model followed by the Caco-2 cell absorption assay. The bioaccessibility of carotenoids using IL was better than those using COS (33.25%, and 26.84%, respectively). The cellular uptake of the carotenoids extracted with IL was 1.4-fold higher than those extracted using COS. Thus, IL may be a feasible alternative as extraction solvent in the food industry, replacing COS, since, in this study, no IL was present in the final extract.

Alglerden Elde Edilen ve Gıdalarda Doğal Renklendirici Olarak Kullanılan Pigmentler ve Fonksiyonel Özellikleri

Colour is one of the major features that fascinate the customers and makes the foods more allurement. Due to changes of customer demands and countries’ legislations, usage of synthetic colorants is being decreased every day and food industry tends to use natural colorant. Algae have recently gained importance owing to a sustainable natural source of colorant. Algae can rapidly increase their biomass compared to plants thus they produce more pigments. This review covers the subjects about the functional properties and usage areas of natural colorants obtained from algae; phycocyanin, phycoerythrin, astaxanthin, canthaxanthin, β-carotene, lutein, fucoxanthin.

Alglerden Elde Edilen ve Gıdalarda Doğal Renklendirici Olarak Kullanılan Pigmentler ve Fonksiyonel Özellikleri

Colour is one of the major features that fascinate the customers and makes the foods more allurement. Due to changes of customer demands and countries’ legislations, usage of synthetic colorants is being decreased every day and food industry tends to use natural colorant. Algae have recently gained importance owing to a sustainable natural source of colorant. Algae can rapidly increase their biomass compared to plants thus they produce more pigments. This review covers the subjects about the functional properties and usage areas of natural colorants obtained from algae; phycocyanin, phycoerythrin, astaxanthin, canthaxanthin, β-carotene, lutein, fucoxanthin.

PEWARNAAN ALAMI DAN SINTETIS LIMBAH SISIK IKAN SEBAGAI POTENSI PERHIASAN/ AKSESORIS MODE

Result from interview with Manado fish scale handicraft industry stakeholder states that wantex is commonly used as colorant for fish scales, resulting in rather vivid and plastic-like colors. Through a series of experiment using natural and synthetic colorants, turmeric (yellow), red yeast rice (red), and synthetic food colorant (Brilliant Blue FCF) are most applicable colorants, producing good results on fish scales. Combinations of these three colorants produce many good secondary colors with new and mild gradations and translucency, very potential to be developed for fashion jewelry explorations which use snapper fish scale as the main material. Key words : colorant, natural, synthetic, fish, scale, snapper Dari hasil wawancara industri kerajinan sisik ikan Manado, wantex tekstil digunakan sebagai zat pewarna sisik ikan sehingga hasil warna yang didapat cenderung pekat dan seperti plastik. Melalui berbagai uji pewarna alami dan sintetis, kunyit (kuning), angkak (merah) dan pewarna makanan sintetis biru (Biru Brilliant FCF) merupakan pewarna yang paling mudah untuk diaplikasikan dan juga menghasilkan warna yang baik pada sisik ikan. Pencampuran ketiga warna tersebut menghasilkan banyak warna sekunder dengan gradasi dan translusensi sisik ikan yang baru dan berwarna lembut sehingga potensial digunakan untuk eksplorasi perhiasan mode berbahan dasar sisik ikan kakap. Kata Kunci: pewarna, alami, sintetis, sisik, ikan, kakap

Ecological and Biotechnological Aspects of Pigmented Microbes: A Way Forward in Development of Food and Pharmaceutical Grade Pigments

Microbial pigments play multiple roles in the ecosystem construction, survival, and fitness of all kinds of organisms. Considerably, microbial (bacteria, fungi, yeast, and microalgae) pigments offer a wide array of food, drug, colorants, dyes, and imaging applications. In contrast to the natural pigments from microbes, synthetic colorants are widely used due to high production, high intensity, and low cost. Nevertheless, natural pigments are gaining more demand over synthetic pigments as synthetic pigments have demonstrated side effects on human health. Therefore, research on microbial pigments needs to be extended, explored, and exploited to find potential industrial applications. In this review, the evolutionary aspects, the spatial significance of important pigments, biomedical applications, research gaps, and future perspectives are detailed briefly. The pathogenic nature of some pigmented bacteria is also detailed for awareness and safe handling. In addition, pigments from macro-organisms are also discussed in some sections for comparison with microbes.

Agro-Industrial Residues: Eco-Friendly and Inexpensive Substrates for Microbial Pigments Production

Many commodities are abundantly produced around the world, including soybean, corn, rice sugarcane, cassava, coffee, fruits, and many others. These productions are responsible for the generation of enormous amounts of daily residues, such as cassava and sugarcane bagasses, rice husk, and coffee peel. These residues are rich sources for renewable energy and can be used as substrates for industrial interest products. Microorganisms are useful biofactories, capable of producing important primary and secondary metabolites, including alcohol, enzymes, antibiotics, pigments, and many other molecules. The production of pigments was reported in bacteria, filamentous fungi, yeasts, and algae. These natural microbial pigments are very promising because synthetic colorants present a long history of allergies and toxicity. In addition, many natural pigments present other biological activities, such as antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, that are interesting for industrial applications. The use of inexpensive substrates for the production of these metabolites is very attractive, considering that agro-industrial residues are generated in high amounts and usually are a problem to the industry. Therefore, in this article we review the production of microbial pigments using agro-industrial residues during the current decade (2010–2020), considering both submerged and solid state fermentations, wild-type and genetically modified microorganisms, laboratorial to large-scale bioprocesses, and other possible biological activities related to these pigments.

Preliminary Examination of the Toxicity of Spalting Fungal Pigments: A Comparison between Extraction Methods

Spalting fungal pigments have shown potential in technologies ranging from green energy generation to natural colorants. However, their unknown toxicity has been a barrier to industrial adoption. In order to gain an understanding of the safety of the pigments, zebrafish embryos were exposed to multiple forms of liquid media and solvent-extracted pigments with concentrations of purified pigment ranging from 0 to 50 mM from Chlorociboria aeruginosa, Chlorociboria aeruginascens, and Scytalidium cuboideum. Purified xylindein from Chlorociboria sp. did not show toxicity at any tested concentration, while the red pigment dramada from S. cuboideum was only associated with significant toxicity above 23.2 uM. However, liquid cultures and pigment extracted into dichloromethane (DCM) showed toxicity, suggesting the co-production of bioactive secondary metabolites. Future research on purification and the bioavailability of the red dramada pigment will be important to identify appropriate use; however, purified forms of the blue-green pigment xylindein are likely safe for use across industries. This opens the door to the adoption of green technologies based on these pigments, with potential to replace synthetic colorants and less stable natural pigments.