ABSTRACT
Sensory attributes are critical for enhancing the richness of food. Food colour is seminal in any food preparation. Beverage industries use several food colorants in the preparation of juices, energy drinks, milk products, soft drinks, alcoholic products, nutritional drinks, and other consumables. Consumer demand for natural ingredients in these kinds of beverages is high; therefore, the search for natural colourants has recently become a prime area of research. Microorganisms offer a wonderful source for exploring varieties of pigments; the production of microbial pigments is easy and can be scaled up for industrial production. Microorganisms (e.g., algae, fungi, bacteria) produce different pigments, which gives enormous scope for industries to develop a wide range of colours. These natural colourants have found applications in several industrial platforms, in particular the beverage industry. This chapter discusses some of the key applications of microbial pigments in beverages.
