NATURALLY AVAILABLE FOOD COLORS

Greetings everyone, hope you are having a good time; its summer here in India, and all I want is some fresh fruits, juices and candies. Candies are the best sweet refreshing capsules to quest thirst during summers. Candies are available in all fruit flavors and colors. Colors??? Yes most of the candies and the packed food we eat contains artificial food colors, which are noted as carcinogens (cancer causing). Not just in candies, even in food stuffs like manchurians, kebabs, grills the meat or vegetables are colored artificially to enhance its attractiveness. Sensitive people get allergies and infections as soon as they consume such colored food substances. Even in my previous article 'Carcinogens' I had mentioned about the artificial food coloring agents and their ill effects. So how to overcome this? 

Today's article is about the availability of vivid pigments from natural sources. I had briefly mentioned about natural pigments in my article 'EXHIBITION AT CFTRI MYSORE: PART II
https://whatsaroudus.blogspot.com/2018/11/exhibition-at-cftri-mysore-part-ii.html .
So let us see how the other living organisms are surprisingly colorful and can be made used in our food cooking processes.

I. Saffron color: Crocus sativus, commonly called as Saffron crocus plant produces stigmas and styles which are deep crimson in color, produces golden yellow color when used in culinary process. It is the most costliest spice in the world by weight.

Orange colour pigment: carrots

CFTRI, Mysore

Daucus carota (carrot) are orange in color from which anthocyanin pigments can be extracted.

II. Yellow: Curcuma longa Turmeric is the ancient source for yellow color, it is used everyday in Indian cuisine. But some say that turmeric is good for spicy food and does not blend well with sweets. I don't think so it is true, why because, CFTRI Mysore has managed to make yummy jalebis using turmeric. I tasted the jalebis and it was very tasty.

CFTRI, Mysore

III. Red color: Haematococcus is a green alage which contains a pigment named 'Astaxanthin' which is reddish in color. It is usually used in making smoked salmon, trout, lobsters, shrimps and other sea food.

Natural pigments

CFTRI, Mysore

Bixa orellana commonly called as achiote, produces flowers and seeds which are bright red in color. The seeds are originally used to make red body paints and lipsticks in America, hence it is commonly called as lipstick tree. It is also used as a spice.

IV. Green color: Palak (spinach) is the common source available for green color, apart from this, Basella alba (Basale soppu in Kannada) is also used for extraction of green pigment from it. 

V. Blue: Phycocyanin, a natural blue pigment is extracted from Spirulina. This is used for the making of beverages and healthy drinks, Spirulina also has medicinal importance and provides, proteins and vitamins to the drinks.

VI. Purple/ Violet color:  Beet root, raddish, or purple cabbage is used to extract purple or violet color.

So that's it for the day, use more of the natural colors and avoid artificial coloring agents, stay healthy, stay natural. Let this week be colorful like our natural sources. See you next week, till then keep reading What's around us for more such articles.