The Science of “Colorants”
I. Background Information
Recently, the food and drug regulatory authorities found that some fruit products have coloring agents used in excess of the scope and limit. What are colorants? How are they used in the food industry? What are the relevant regulations and standards at home and abroad? This issue is for your interpretation.
Expert Opinions
(A) Colorants are food additives that give color to food and improve the color of food.
Colorants, also known as food coloring, are substances that give color to food and improve food color, belonging to a class of food additives. At present, there are more than 60 kinds of food coloring agents commonly used in the world, which can be divided into two categories of food natural coloring agents and food synthetic coloring agents according to their sources and properties. Food natural colorants mainly come from natural pigments, according to its different sources, there are three main categories: first, plant pigments, such as beet red, turmeric, β-carotene, chlorophyll, etc.; second, animal pigments, such as purple gum red, cochineal red, etc.; third, microorganisms, such as red currant red, etc.. Food synthetic colorants are mainly based on some special chemical groups or color groups for synthesis, according to its chemical structure can be divided into two categories, one is azo pigments, such as amaranth, carmine, sunset yellow, lemon yellow, new red, temptation red, acid red, etc.; the second is a non-azido pigments, such as erythrosine, bright blue, etc..
(ii) There are clear and strict regulations on the use and labeling of food coloring agents at home and abroad.
Different countries have clear regulations on the types and use of food colorants. The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), the European Union, the United States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other international organizations, countries and regions also have provisions on the use of natural food colorants and synthetic food colorants in their regulations and standards.
China’s National Standard for the Use of Food Additives for Food Safety (GB2760) clearly stipulates the permitted varieties, scope of use and use limits or residue levels of food colorants, and the corresponding quality specification requirements are also being gradually improved. At the same time, in accordance with the “National Standard for Food Safety General Principles for the Labeling of Prepackaged Foods” (GB7718), as long as the use of coloring agents in food must be marked on the food label.
(iii) Reasonable use of coloring agents in accordance with the standard will not cause harm to human health.
Whether it is food natural colorants or food synthetic colorants, their safety should stand on the same starting line for risk assessment. As long as through the risk assessment, approved and in accordance with the provisions of the standard and the corresponding quality specifications required to regulate the use of is safe, will not bring harm to the health of consumers. GB2760 in the permitted use of food additives are after the safety assessment of the use of coloring agents in line with the standard, there is no need for consumers to worry about.
(d) At present, there is the phenomenon of using coloring agents in excess of the scope and limit of food products, and this kind of problem needs to be given great attention.
From the results of food safety supervision and sampling in 2015 announced by the State Food and Drug Administration, the over-scope and over-limit use of food additives, including colorants, accounted for 24.8% of the unqualified samples. The reason for this is that some manufacturers do not understand the provisions of the relevant standards, lack of appropriate technical management, but also individual manufacturers in order to save production costs, or one-sided pursuit of the sensory effect of the product and deliberately.
Third, the experts recommend
(A) food production enterprises should strictly abide by the relevant standards and regulations. Food production enterprises should strictly comply with the requirements of GB2760 and GB7718. The use of food additives, including food coloring agents, in food should be reduced as much as possible on the premise of achieving the desired effect, and standardized in the label.
(ii) Regulatory authorities should increase the supervision on the use of food coloring agents in excess of the scope and limit. It is recommended that the use and labeling of food coloring agents by food enterprises be strictly regulated. The illegal addition of food coloring agents should be severely punished, and at the same time, the guidance and training of practitioners should be strengthened.
(iii) Consumers should look at food coloring agents rationally. Consumers are advised to take a rational view of coloring agents and not to over-pursuing the sensory properties of food, but to understand the composition and sensory quality of food from a scientific and natural perspective.
