Natural Food Colors

Natural Food Colors

Definition and characteristics

Natural food colors are extracted and refined from natural materials and used all kinds of food products for coloring because it's excellent safety and credibility not like synthetic colors. Especially, it is very natural in color shade, so people can use it with no limitation.
Doing R&D continuously, MSC succeed in localization of all natural food colors which was depended on import. In addition to this, it is exported to worldwide owing to its superb quality.

Requisite of Natural colors

Natural food colors should be no harm to human body and no discolor when sterilized or heated and outstanding heat-resistance.
Moreover, it should have light-resistant ability against light.
In particular, it should be stable type that not forms by-products which is reacted with many other ingredients in food.
Natural color can be used if it has following factors.

1. Natural colors have to use materials of common food as their ingredients
2. Natural colors should have basic data for its safety.
   
3. Unless it has safety data, it should be one that is used by generation to generation
4. Natural colors have to take raw materials easily.

Classification of Natural food colors

A. Classification by material Animal color - cochineal, lac color Vegetable color - Gardenia yellow, Gardenia Blue, Safflower yellow, Beet red, Paprika, grape skin color, etc. Microbe color - monascus color

B. Classification by type

• Type of fruit jam, concentrated juice
  
• Type of dried, crushed natural materials (ex. curry powder)
  
• Type of powder after extracting, refining, concentrating pigment (ex.cochineal, gardenia, safflower)
  
• Type of heated and enzyme reacted (ex. caramel, gardenia blue)
  
• Type of sorted synthetic not like sorted natural previously (ex. betacarotin, riboflavin.)

How to make

• Crushing : Crushing dried animal or vegetable.
  - Material > Sorting > Cleaning > Crushing > Products
• Extracting : Extracting animal or vegetable
  - Material > Sorting > Cleaning > Extracting > Concentrating > Products
• Enzyme reacting : Enzyme reacting by natural products and by-products.
  - Material > Sorting > Cleaning > Extracting > Enzyme reacting > Crushing > Extracting > Concentrating > Products
• Cultivating : Using color cultivated by microbe.
  - Material > Cultivating > Extracting > Refining > Products