Coloring of food by the use of natural color extracted by beetroot (Beta Vulgaris), betalain pigment

Abstract

Color is one of the most important quality attribute in the food products. The purpose of adding color in the foods is to make them attractive, to influence the consumer to buy the product and also to improve the quality of the food product. At the present time the demand of natural color is increased in worldwide due to the awareness of people on therapeutic medicinal properties and their benefits in the place of synthetic colors. Synthetic colors are harmful for health and show toxicity in food products. Natural color are those pigments which is derived from naturally sources such as plants, insects, animals, vegetables and fruits etc. among all these natural dyes, plant based pigments have medicinal values so are mostly preferred. Today the food industry are mostly preferred the use of natural coloring pigment in their food products because the generation of this time is very possessive to their health and preferred the food product which is made from the use of natural color. The present study is based on the use of natural colors in food product in the place of synthetic color. The natural color was extracted from beetroot (Beta Vulgaris) named as betalain pigment. Betalain pigment is rich in antioxidant property, vitamin A and C and also a good source of iron, calcium etc. In this experiment the use of the natural color in the preparation of cookies.

Keywords:  natural food color, dyes, extraction, pigment, beetroot, betalain, cookies.