PROSPECTS FOR NEW NATURAL FOOD COLORANTS

There has been much interest in the development of new natural coloran ts for use in the food industry, which is apparently due to strong con sumer demand for more natural products, at least in some countries. Th ere is no doubt that it is technologically feasible to prepare new nat ural colorants from locally known plants or microorganisms that have n ot yet been investigated scientifically. However, on considering econo mic, legislative and consumer acceptance aspects, prospects for new fo od colorants look less promising. It is unlikely that it will be possi ble to introduce completely new natural colorants into today's food ma nufacturing industry, as long as current food legislation and consumer attitudes remain unchanged. Furthermore, there are no reasons to beli eve that newly discovered pigments will be any more resistant to proce ssing conditions than those that are already available.