Natural Pigment-Healthy and Safe Choice for a Better Life

It’s a fact that synthetic pigment is harmful to human body. They are toxic (including toxicity, causing diarrhea and cancer). These toxicities originated from arsenic , lead, copper in the synthetic pigment, they can cause harm to human body in different extent. 

While natural pigment is new trend in food application area. They are healthy and safe. People are paying more and more attention to natural color development and application these days. Below are some knowledge about natural colors.

Definition

Natural pigment is a kind of edible pigment which is obtained from natural resources. They are mainly extracted from the tissue of plant or animal and microorganism. Most of them are vegetablecolorants. Natural pigments have not only the function of coloration but also physiological activity.

Source

Natural colors usually come from the natural ingredients, such as red beet, grape and paprika, these food products has been widely accepted and recognized by many consumers. Therefore, colorants from these materials can be easily accepted by consumers and safer to be used. Most of them are from vegetable colorants.

Thanks to the usage of natural pigments, some foods look more natural and they become more popular among consumers. Natural pigment not only seize the market of synthetic pigments but also some pigment extracts’ market in EU nowadays.

Characteristic

Most vegetable colorants are safe having no side-effects. The majorities are anthocyanins, catenoids, flavoids. They are biologically active substances thus the functional ingredients in herbal and healthcare food. They have the function of  strengthening the immune system, anti-oxidation and reducing the blood lipids in healthcare foods. In ordinary foods, they have the function of nutrition-strengthening and anti-oxidation.

The hue of vegetable colorants are more natural. They can not only increase the hue but also a beauty of nature since they are closer to natural hue.

Application

The natural pigment application and development has become a issue that is widely concerned by science and technology workers from most industries. People are trying to get naturalpigments from various kinds of vegetable and animal resources and explore their physiological activity to relieve and even resolve the problems which are caused by synthetic pigments. 

Japan has been ranked on the top in natural pigment application and development industry. The usage of natural pigment is more than synthetic pigment in early 1975 in Japan. The natural pigment market has surpassed 200 million Japanese yuan. Until May,1995, the approved natural pigment in Japan have reached 97 categories.