Food colours are additives that, when added to foods, impart colour to them.[1][3]
Foods often undergo color changes due to exposure to air, light, humidity or temperature. The addition of colours serves to:
- enhance the naturally occurring colours;
- add colour to an otherwise colorless food;
- change the colour of a product.[3]
Therefore, colorants improve the appearance of foods and, for commercial purposes, encourage consumers to buy them.
Along with sweeteners and stabilizers, they are the most used food additives in private households.
Contents
- Purpose of food coloring
- Natural and artificial colours
- Examples of colours
- Health effects
- References
Purpose of food coloring
Colours are added to many foods, such as cheeses, beverages, snacks, sweets, jams, or fats like margarine and butter.
From a commercial point of view, they help make products more attractive, appetizing or easily identifiable to consumers. Colour even seems to be, among the sensory signals, the most important.[7]
Furthermore, consumer choices are often influenced by their perception of what the “natural” colour of the product should be. An example is candied cherries, whose natural colour is beige, but which are colored red, using erythrosine (E127) or cochineal red A (E124), because that is the colour consumers consider as natural for that product.
Colours are also used in the medical field, where they help make drugs easily identifiable at sight.
Natural and artificial colours
Like other food additives, colours can be natural or artificial.
Natural food colours include plant-derived and animal-derived molecules.
Examples of plant-derived colours are lycopene (E160d), lutein (E161b) and beta-carotene (E160a(ii)), which are carotenoids. Some anthocyanins (E163), the only colored flavonoids, and chlorophylls are also plant-derived colours.[5]
An example of animal-derived colour is carminic acid (E120), or more precisely, its aluminum salt. Carminic acid is extracted from cochineal (Dactylopius coccus), which is believed to use it as a visual deterrent secreted when attacked by a predator.[2][4]
Finally, an example of an artificial colour is Allura red AC (E129), initially used as a substitute for amaranth (E123).[6]
Examples of colours
Below is a review of some colours included in the list of food additives approved in the European Community according to Regulation 1129/2011 of the European Commission, published on November 11, 2011. This list is an amendment of Annex II to Regulation (EC) No. 1333/2008 of the European Parliament, and was in turn amended in 2013.[1]
| E-number | Additive and colour | |
| Yellow and orange | ||
| E100 | Curcumin | |
| E101 | (i) Riboflavin, (ii) Riboflavin-5′-phosphate (vitamin B2) |
|
| E102 | Tartrazine (= FD&C Yellow no. 5) | |
| E104 | Quinoline yellow | |
| E110 | Sunset Yellow FCF; Orange Yellow S (= FD&C Yellow no. 6) |
|
| Red | ||
| E120 | Cochineal; Carminic acid; Carmines | |
| E122 | Azorubine; Carmoisine | |
| E123 | Amaranth | |
| E124 | Ponceau 4R; Cochineal Red A | |
| E127 | Erythrosine (= FD&C Red no. 3) | |
| E129 | Allura Red AC (= FD&C Red no. 40) | |
| Blue | ||
| E131 | Patent Blue V | |
| E132 | lndigotine; Indigo Carmine (= FD&C Blue no. 2) |
|
| E133 | Brilliant Blue FCF (= FD&C Blue no. 1) | |
| Green | ||
| E140 | Chlorophylls and chlorophyllins: (i) Chlorophylls, (ii) Chlorophyllins (the natural green colour of leaves) |
|
| E141 | Copper complexes of chlorophyll and chlorophyllins | |
| E142 | Green S | |
| Brown and black | ||
| E150a | Plain caramel | |
| E150b | Caustic sulphite caramel | |
| E150c | Ammonia caramel | |
| E150d | Sulphite ammonia caramel | |
| E151 | Brilliant Black BN; Black PN | |
| E153 | Vegetable carbon | |
| E155 | Brown HT | |
| Carotenoids | ||
| E160a | Carotenes: (i) Mixed carotenes, (ii) Beta-carotene | |
| E160b | Annatto; Bixin; Norbixin | |
| E160c | Paprika extract; Capsanthin; Capsorubin | |
| E160d | Lycopene | |
| E160e | trans-beta-apo-8′-carotenal (C30) | |
| E160f | Ethyl ester of beta-apo-8′-carotenoic acid (C30) | |
| Other colours | ||
| E161b | Lutein | |
| E161c | Beta-cryptoxanthin | |
| E161g | Canthaxanthin | |
| E162 | Beetroot Red; Betanin | |
| E163 | Anthocyanins | |
| E172 | Iron oxides and hydroxides | |
| E174 | Silver | |
| E175 | Gold | |
| FD&C USA; abbreviation for synthetic colours permitted for use in food, drugs and cosmetics. | ||
Health effects
The safety of food colours is a major concern, as their use is not essential for food preservation.
Scientific evidence indicates that, when used according to current regulations, they do not pose a health risk. However, the competent authorities in the field, such as EFSA for the European Union or the Joint FAO/WHO Committee on Food Additives at a global level, continue to evaluate their safety, updating the assessments when new evidence emerges or further research is needed, as in the case of vegetable carbon (E153), iron oxides and hydroxides (E172), silver (E174), and gold (E175).[3]
References
- ^ a b Commission Regulation (EU) No 1129/2011 of 11 November 2011 amending Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council by establishing a Union list of food additives. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2011/1129/2013-11-21
- ^ Deveoglu O. A review on cochineal (Dactylopius Coccus Costa) dye. Res J Recent Sci 2020;9(3):37-43
- ^ a b c EFSA: Food colours. Last reviewed date: 18 January 2024. https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/food-colours
- ^ Eisner T., Nowicki S., Goetz M., Meinwald J. Red cochineal dye (carminic acid): its role in nature. Science 1980;208(4447):1039-42. doi:10.1126/science.208.4447.1039
- ^ Gebhardt B., Sperl R., Carle R., Müller-Maatsch J. Assessing the sustainability of natural and artificial food colorants. J Clean Prod 2020;260;120884. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120884
- ^ “Human Metabolome Database: Showing metabocard for Allura red AC (HMDB0032884)”. Human Metabolome Database. 11 September 2012. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
- ^ Piqueras-Fiszman B. and Spence C. Sensory expectations based on product-extrinsic food cues: an interdisciplinary review of the empirical evidence and theoretical accounts. Food Qual 2015;40(Part A):165-179. doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2014.09.013