ABSTRACT
Developing new products in food and beverage industries requires adherence to nutritional parameters as well as safety and acceptance by the consumer market. Demand for natural products has been growing over the years, and one of the major challenges is the exchange of synthetic food colorants for colorants from natural sources. Therefore, the use of microbial pigments has been gaining prominence in the world market because different microbial sources (bacteria, filamentous fungi, yeasts, microalgae and cyanobacteria) that are potential producers on an industrial scale can be used by the food industry. Despite the great demand for these alternative pigments in industrial applications, their economic feasibility in comparison with synthetic pigments must be ensured. Toward that end, different techniques such as optimizing cultivation and recovery and genetic engineering have been applied to bioprocesses to increase pigment yield and decrease production costs. This chapter describes different aspects of producing pigments from microorganisms, such as the selection of the culture medium, the influence of process conditions (pH, agitation, aeration, and temperature) and the application of magnetic fields and metabolic engineering, and it addresses the challenges and potential of and prospects for microbial pigments in industries.
