ABSTRACT
Food colours or pigments have great importance in determining the taste and flavor of food. The instability and degradation of natural food colors during preservation of food affects the quality of food in the global market. To sustain uniformity in the color of the food product, many synthetic and natural colors are being added intentionally to the food. Natural pigments are basically naturally occurring colored compounds present in various types of food, which include anthocyanins, betalains, caramels, carmine, carotenoids, annatto, astaxanthin, etc. Synthetic food pigments are basically synthetic dyes and chemicals, which impart color to various food products, which include tartazine, amaranth, allura red, quinoline yellow, etc. Some of these dyes and chemicals are found to be hazardous to human health. Due to the harmful effect of these synthetic colors, their use as food additives has been limited and they are considered food adulterants. Nowadays, there is a growing concern for maintaining safety of some commonly used legal food colorants and the trend to replace synthetic food colors with natural products. The major concern about food colors in respect to the safety of food is the lack of uniform regulations worldwide regarding the use of food colors. This review aims to cover the various types of food colors, their uses and food colors as adulterants in detail.
