Yellow colour for ledoo, orange or red colour for jilebi, chocolate colour for cake, light cream colour for paneer and butter, saffron colour for pudding, halwa of red, green, yellow and orange colours – These attractive colours are enough to induce saliva of our salivary glands. Not only tastes and sweet aroma, attractive colours are also needed to make a dish ‘complete’. Colours can be used to make your food attractive. It’s of two types – natural and artificial. Natural food colours are obtained from plants and secretions of certain micro organisms while chemical substances are used to give artificial flavour.  

Natural food colours are healthy, free of side effects and help our body in many ways while artificial colours are very harmful to our health. Modern world has now understood the real value of natural colours, particularly when food safety is discussed a lot nowadays. Through this column, let me give you a brief summary of a few such items that enhance your health and immunity power a lot.

Not vitamin, but betanin – Dark meroon colour of beet root is due to betanin. 1 kg beetroot is enough to extract 300-600 milligram of betanin and it can be used to give colour to meat, ice cream, sausage, sweets and soft drinks.

Magical green – Leafy vegetables, rich in anti-oxidants and a lot of vital factors is abundant in chlorophyll too. Chlorophyll that gives green colour to leaves can be used to colour ice creams, cool drinks, candies and medicines also.

Birthday cakes – Cakes with different shades of brown, brown bread and chocolates are common in bakeries. Water solution ‘Caramel’ is that product that gives this colour. It is found in sugar cane and beet root. It can also be used in jams and juices.

Paprika or capsicum – This green chilly with less spice can give red colours. Capsanthin and Capsorubin compounds are present in the outer shell of these peppers. Its extracts and compounds are used in poultry feed to give red colour to meat and dark yellow colour to yolk. It can also be used in sauce, paneer, salad and icing.

Yellow beauty Marigold – A pigment extracted from beautiful marigold flowers is used to give yellow colours to ice cream, fruit juices and bakery products. That yellow colouring substance is ‘Lutin’.  

Carrots and carotinoid – Carotinoid is present in carrot, yellow flowers, tomato, sweet potato, beet root and pumpkin. It can also be used to give natural red, blue and orange colours and it has many health benefits as well.

Colour changing organism – Cochineal, a scale insect has a unique feature to change to red once attacked by enemies. It is due to carminic acid and carmine extracted from this pigment can be used to give colours to jams, meat, sausage and soft drinks. In many foreign countries, these insects are grown to manufacture this product in last scale.

Likopine from tomato, anthocyanin of brinjal, red shades of lipstick tree, carotene of carrot, capsanthin of capsicum and saffron of saffron flowers – if we start searching for such natural colours, we can get a lot from our nature itself.

Article Posted By : Sandhya Rani  On April 18, 2013lView All Articles

Use natural food colours for your food

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http://www.veethi.com/articles/natural-colours-for-food-products-article-2021.htm

Keywords :
Natural colours for food , food colours