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Food coloring is currently a rather controversial food additive. Food dyes are marked on the labels with the letter E, which is preceded by a three-digit number from 100 to 199. In products, we can find natural and synthetic food dyes. Synthetic dyes are the most controversial group, as they can negatively affect health, especially for children and people suffering from allergies.
Why do we use food coloring?
Food colorings https://kondishop.com.ua/shokolady-krasiteli-konditerskoe-syre/pishchevye-krasiteli are added to products for several reasons. The first is the desire to reproduce the original external color of the product, which changes during processing. The second reason is to add color to foods that are colorless by nature. Sometimes food coloring is added to improve the appearance of the product or to emphasize the aroma, which is associated with a certain color and therefore becomes easier to recognize. The color of the food product is very important. It may seem banal to us, but the color affects the taste and helps to identify the product. After all, strawberry-flavored cakes are more associated with red than with green. Psychological perception plays a big role.
Natural food colors
Natural food dyes are of vegetable, animal or mineral origin. They were used many centuries ago. An example is ancient Egypt, where saffron was used to obtain a yellow color. Natural food dyes are usually obtained by extracting plant material. Extracts are concentrated, and then dyes are isolated in various ways. Most natural dyes, as a rule, are considered harmless. Of course, this does not mean that all of them can be considered harmless. Exceptions are, for example, silver (E174) and gold (E175), which cause poisoning in large quantities. However, due to the price, these dyes are added to products rarely and most often in small quantities. Another natural food coloring that can cause some health problems is the copper complex of chlorophyll and chlorophyllin (E141).
Examples of natural food dyes:
• chlorophyll is a fat-soluble, very unstable plant-based color obtained from the green parts of plants. It is used for fixation of staining and staining of products;
• carotenoids — heat- and light-resistant, fat-soluble natural paint, which can be obtained from yellow, orange to red;
• anthocyanins — a fat-soluble red color that can be obtained from fruits and vegetables, such as: grapes, caramel red cabbage — a coloring agent obtained by long-term heating of carbohydrates. It has a high color ability from brown to almost black.
Synthetic food colors
If the majority of natural food dyes are considered harmless, then this cannot be said about synthetic food dyes. They are divided into synthetic organic dyes (tartrazine (E102), azorubin (E122), varnished blue (E131), permanent green (E143), shiny black (E151)) and inorganic (titanium dioxide (E171), aluminum (E173), silver (E174), gold (E175)). They do not pose a direct threat to our life and health, but their excessive consumption can cause health problems and allergic reactions.
The advantage of synthetic dyes over natural dyes is that they are more durable and resistant to external influences. In addition, they are cheaper. Therefore, less stable and much more expensive natural dyes are used less often.
