Establishing Standards on Colors from Natural Sources

Abstract

Color additives are applied to many food, drug, and cosmetic products. With up to 85% of consumer buying decisions potentially influenced by color, appropriate application of color additives and their safety is critical. Color additives are defined by the U.S. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) as any dye, pigment, or substance that can impart color to a food, drug, or cosmetic or to the human body. Under current U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, colors fall into 2 categories as those subject to an FDA certification process and those that are exempt from certification often referred to as "natural" colors by consumers because they are sourced from plants, minerals, and animals. Certified colors have been used for decades in food and beverage products, but consumer interest in natural colors is leading market applications. However, the popularity of natural colors has also opened a door for both unintentional and intentional economic adulteration. Whereas FDA certifications for synthetic dyes and lakes involve strict quality control, natural colors are not evaluated by the FDA and often lack clear definitions and industry accepted quality and safety specifications. A significant risk of adulteration of natural colors exists, ranging from simple misbranding or misuse of the term "natural" on a product label to potentially serious cases of physical, chemical, and/or microbial contamination from raw material sources, improper processing methods, or intentional postproduction adulteration. Consistent industry-wide safety standards are needed to address the manufacturing, processing, application, and international trade of colors from natural sources to ensure quality and safety throughout the supply chain.

What is food‐to‐food fortification? A working definition and framework for evaluation of efficiency and implementation of best practices

“…This would include key information used in botanical identification such as (1) identification (family, genus, and species of plant), (2) part of the plant used, (3) geographic origin, (4) growing condition, (5) wild or cultivated, (6) cultivation practice and phytosanitary measures (i.e., use levels of use for pesticides), and (7) postharvest handling or process (Kroes & Walker, 2004). Such documentation when combined with chemical profiling of key micronutrients and other characteristic compounds (i.e., secondary metabolites) can provide a reasonable level of authentication and can reduce the potential risk associated with poor quality material or raise the potential for detection of adulterated material (Simon et al., 2017).…”

Konsentrat Buah Naga Super Red (Hylocereus costaricensis) Sebagai Pewarna Alami dalam Pembuatan Permen Karet Sehat

“…Dalam konsentrasi rendah, pewarna sintesis dapat memberikan warna yang lebih tajam dibandingkan pewarna alami (Harjanti, 2016;Simon et al, 2017). Untuk menghasilkan warna yang lebih tajam, pewarna alami harus ditambahkan dalam jumlah yang banyak atau dalam konsentrasi yang lebih tinggi.…”

“…Walaupun pewarna alami memiliki kekurangan di atas, pewarna alami merupakan zat aktif yang masih dianggap aman (Simon et al, 2017). Sejauh ini, belum ada penelitian yang menemukan efek samping pigmen tanaman sebagai pewarna alami makanan terhadap kesehatan manusia.…”

Green Natural Colorants

“…The consumers’ concern about the safety of artificial food colorants, reinforced by the possible health benefits of natural pigments, have induced the food industry to withdraw artificial colorants. In fact, artificial food colorants represent only 16% in the EU and 29% in the North America of the food colorants portfolio [13].…”

“…The aim of the present review is to specifically address the current status of natural green food colorants, including the legal issues, the chemistry of chlorophylls and the existing alternatives for the stabilization of green color in foods, as well as the acclaimed “coloring foodstuff”. For a general study of other food colorants, high-quality reviews have recently been published [4,10,11,13,14,15,16,17].…”