Analysis of natural food pigments by capillary electrophoresis

Lac, cochineal, safflower, gardenia, Monascus and elderberry pigments are u sed as food color additives in Japan. These natural pigments can be analyze d by capillary electrophoresis (CE). CE has several advantages over thin la yer chromatography, gas chromatography and high-performance liquid chromato graphy, such as low capillary cost, reduced operating costs, small sample a mounts, low production of waste materials and short analysis time. CE is sh own to be a useful technique for the analysis of these natural food pigment s and the pigments extracted from commercial food samples by solid-phase ex traction method. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.