Natural Vs. Synthetic Food Coloring
When you step into the market and look around you, the food looks so vibrant and you just can’t resist but put them in your grocery bag or eat it right away. But when you try making the same dish at home, it is never the same!! Ever wondered why?
Synthetic Food Color Does All The Magic
Synthetic Food color is a substance that is added to food or drink to change its color. It is an important constituent. When we think of an apple, our mind shows a nice picture of red color, grapes are also associated with blue or green color. The addition of color to food gives an attractive and appetizing appearance and also enhances its acceptability.
Food colors are quite common and are used in many foods and beverages. Some colorants are also used in cosmetics and medicines too. But why are food colors so popular and so widely used? Consumers tend to like or appreciate certain food products that are visually more attractive. If certain items look dull or low, they automatically consider them to be wrong.
Companies have started using food colors to increase the product’s aesthetics to make it aesthetically more pleasing.
Another primary reason why food colors are used is for festivity or novelty. During Christmas or Halloween, people tend to prepare items like cupcakes or cookies that are quite colorful. To make these colorful food items, you need food color, and so they are quite popular among people.
Synthetic Colors –
We usually see and use the food colors prepared Synthetically and are created inside labs. Chemically speaking, these colors are made when a molecule has many conjugated double bonds, and the energy difference between the two different molecular orbital falls within the light range that we can visualize.
Natural Colors –
on the other hand, Natural colors means a colour which something has by nature; like the color brilliant blue was extracted from a bacteria named cyanobacteria Spirulina. A few other color sources include beetroots (red and purple), lycopene (extracted from tomatoes), curcumin (yellow from turmeric), chlorophyllin (green from chlorella), and caramel that is made using heated sugar.
Differences between Natural and Synthetic Colors –
- Synthetic colors are usually heated stable, pH stable, and light stable.
- They are available as both water-soluble and Oil-soluble pigments.
- Since they are produced artificially, they are not restricted by any halal or kosher religious laws.
- Synthetic colors are quite strong, and so they can be easily played with if one wishes to make alterations with a finished product.
- Self-life of Synthetic colors are 5 to 7 years.
- Synthetic colours are cost-efficient.
On the contrary,
- Natural colors are sensitive to heat, so they must go through thermal processing before using natural pigments.
- Some of these Natural colors are sensitive to light as well, and some change their pH values.
- And hence, these Natural colors must be selected before the manufacturing process.
- Self-life of Natural colors are 18 to 24 months.
- Natural colors are costly as compare to Synthetic colors.
- Natural colors are safe to use and has no side effects on humans.
These are the necessary comparisons between natural and artificial food colors. Although they both have their pros and cons, it is a matter of preference to use natural or synthetic food color.
Aryan Chemicals is a manufacturer and exporter of synthetic food colors from Surat, Gujarat, India.
for more details, you can visit our website www.aryanchemicals.com or call us on +91 7490988889.
