Knowledge of Natural Pigments and Artificial Pigments

The world is colorful because of its various colors. Just like beautiful women love to make up, in order to make themselves look more bright. Similarly, when we eat food, we need to have all kinds of color, aroma and taste, and put color first, because "color" can bring us visual impact and impulse to eat. It is because of this impulse that we add pigments to food. When we enjoy these beautiful things, we are also wondering whether these "beautiful things" will "harm the world" and worry about its safety.

To know whether it is safe or not, we must first understand the color. In the "Standards for the Use of Food Additives (2011 Edition)", it is stipulated that the colorant is "the substance that gives color and improves the color of food". The colorant is the color. Pigments in our food are classified into natural pigments and synthetic pigments.

What are natural and synthetic pigments?

Natural pigments refer to pigments directly from animal and plant tissues. Except gamboge is highly toxic and not used, the rest are generally harmless to human health. Natural edible pigments allowed to be used in China and formulated with national standards are curcumin, shellac pigments, safflower xanthin, sodium copper chlorophyll, capsicum red pigment, red koji rice and beta-carotene.

Artificial synthetic pigments mainly include carmine and its performance point, amaranth and its aluminium lake, lemon yellow and its aluminium lake, sunset yellow and its aluminium lake, bright blue and its aluminium lake, new red and its aluminium lake, etc.

Are Artificial Pigments and Natural Pigments Harmful to Human Body

Many people will have such questions. Are pigments harmful to us? Some even say that children who eat too much can cause ADHD. The conclusion is based on a group of experiments done by some foreign institutions, but whether the experiment is correct or not, and whether it is finally confirmed, has not been implemented, so such data can not explain the problem. In fact, there are restrictions on the use and management of food pigments in all countries of the world. According to current regulations, artificial pigments and natural pigments are safe as long as they meet the standards.

When we say that pigments are harmful, we ignore the food itself. Most foods requiring pigments are candy, puffed foods and some high-calorie foods. And such food itself has health risks, eating too much is a kind of health burden. Therefore, when we are worried about the hazards of pigments, we should control our intake of these foods which have potential health hazards, reduce the number of deep-processed foods to eat, and help children resist the temptation of snacks. This is the correct dietary concept we should establish.

Which is better, natural pigments or synthetic pigments?

In our use, there are many kinds of natural pigments than synthetic pigments, and the nutritional and antioxidant effects of natural pigments are also recognized in food, such as carotene in carrots, lutein in marigold, polyphenols in grapes, which have good health effects on cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, antioxidant and eyes. But this does not mean that natural pigments are better than synthetic pigments. Because it is also based on the food itself, which kind of food to add what kind of pigments, how many pigments to add, all need to be decided according to laws and regulations.

It is safe to add pigments according to laws and regulations. But we also need to be careful not to be confused by the color of food, resist temptation, learn to control themselves, eat on time and in quantity. Excess food is a burden.