Chemical Characterization and Evaluation of Natural Pigments as Food Colorants
A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 41309
Special Issue Editor
Interests: natural pigments; food colorants; anthocyanins from natural sources; food science and human nutrition; food toxicology; nutraceutical and functional food
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Due to the consumers' awareness of health benefits and low environmental impact, natural pigments have gained increasing popularity. As a result, the food and beverage industry is following the trend of eliminating, at least partially, artificial substances such as synthetic colorants from food products. Natural pigments are not only technologically relevant to the food industry, there is increasing evidence of their contribution to human health. Pigment extracts from natural sources containing polyphenols, carotenoids and chlorophylls are currently widely studied. However, other molecules with pigment potential, such as betalains, water-soluble proteins, and protein–pigment complexes among others, offer excellent research opportunities.
Despite the technological and health benefits of natural pigments, there are many challenges yet to overcome. Stability plays an essential role in the design of food products containing natural pigments, and new technologies exploring copigmentation, complexation and encapsulation, among others, are required. Additionally, identifying alternative sources of pigments, such as low-cost crops, insects, bacteria, or plant–foods coproducts, will reduce the current high cost of natural pigment production. Optimization of the natural pigment extraction solvents and technologies is also needed to improve the yield of production and to provide safe, innocuous food ingredients. Besides the technological aspects of natural pigments, it is crucial to identify their potential health benefits through in vitro, in vivo, or clinical studies.
In this Special Issue we encourage the submission of manuscripts related to the extraction, characterization, application, and biological evaluation of natural pigments with the potential to be used as food colorants. We expect to gather multidisciplinary research on new sources, application in food models, sustainable extraction methods, scalable stabilization technologies, and mechanistic studies of the health-promoting effects of natural pigments.
Dr. Diego A. Luna-Vital
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- natural pigments
- anthocyanins
- carotenoids
- chlorophylls
- betalains
- phycobiliproteins
- extraction and characterization
- • stability
- • food colorants
- • polyphenols
- • bioactive compounds
- • value added compounds
- • nutraceutical foods
- • functional foods
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