What is food coloring made of?

What is food coloring made of?

• Answer:

  Food coloring is any substance that is added to food or drink to change its color. There are two major types of food coloring, ones extracted naturally or ones created synthetically. Natural food dyes are much more varied and abundant and include: Caramel coloring, made from caramelized sugar, used in cola products and also in cosmetics. Annatto, a reddish-orange dye made from the seed of the Achiote. A green dye made from the chorapyll of chlorella algae Cochineal, a red dye derived from the cochineal insect, Dactylopius coccus. Betanin, a deep reddish color extracted from beets. In the USA (as of 2007), the following seven synthetic colorings are permitted in food, the most common being Blue No. 1, Red No. 40 and Yellow No. 5: Blue No. 1 - Brilliant Blue, (Blue shade), a synthetic dye derived from coal tar Blue No. 2 - Indigotine, (Dark Blue shade) Green No. 3 - Fast Green, (Bluish green shade) Red No. 40 - Allura Red, (Red shade), a dye manufactured mostly from petroleum Red No. 3 - Erythrosine, (Pink shade) Yellow No. 5 - Tartrazine, (Yellow shade), a popular azo dye Yellow No. 6 - Sunset Yellow, (Orange shade) There's a tremendous range of food coloring choices that can be used in manufactured goods and in some cases available to home cooks to add extra color to baked goods or frosting. The question of what food color contains depends widely on the type of food coloring used. Each color tends to be derived from several ingredients, and comes in generally two forms. Dye form tends to produce less vibrant colors, is more likely to bleed, and is not soluble in oil.Lake form is oil soluble, tends to be more stable and does not bleed. Food colors used in many baked goods and cosmetics tends to be of the lake form. This is generally a combination of a food dye, used to make color, and aluminum pigment. The ingredients will vary according to color. It can be interesting to know what makes up the colors in food colorings. Some are naturally derived. For instance, green food coloring tends to get its shade from seaweed, and orange food coloring may be made from seeds. Red food coloring, which you might see listed ascarmine in manufactured goods may not be so tasty once you hear what it is derived from. It tends to be made from the certain insects. Alternately, you can find red food colors made from beet juice or paprika. Brown food coloring made to impart a caramel color is usually less involved with the insect world and is derived from sugar that has been caramelized.