Carotenoid-based solutions for the replacement of artificial colorants in pastry products
Artigo de Conferência
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resumo
Colour has a great importance in the first consumers’ impression, allowing to infer about the overall quality, the taste, the smell, the texture, and even the safety of foodstuff [1]. For these reasons, there is a massive use of colorants in food products. Nevertheless, the most applied compounds are of artificial origin and some of them have been increasingly associated to health issues, with allergic reactions, children attention deficit, and cancer pointed out as the most common consequences [2]. These facts have been driving new research in this field, through the exploitation of natural sources of colouring molecules
to be applied in detriment of artificial colorants. Among the numerous natural matrices potentially used for the extraction of colouring compounds, the fruits from the genus Solanum represent promising sources of pigments, namely carotenoids [3]. Together with the fact that large amounts of fresh tomato wastes (resulting from crop growing, packaging, processing, storage, and sale) are discarded worldwide, the recovery of valuable colorant biomolecules from these agri-food wastes represents a crucial step of the circular economy by re introducing them into the food chain as ingredients [3]. The need to process these bio-wastes for the recovery of coloring molecules, has led to the use of more eco-sustainable extraction methodologies in detriment of more conventional techniques, such as maceration. Ultrasound-assisted extraction methodology arises as one of the most promising alternatives, with lower extraction times, use of greener solvents, and higher recovery yields, but also with the possibility to be scaled-up to respond to the high demands of the industrialized world [3]. Carotenoid compounds are lipophilic pigments responsible for the yellow, orange, and red colours of certain plant matrices, with a vast structural diversity, but prone to isomerization and oxidation [4]. However, the colouring capacity of these molecules overcomes any instability problem (that can be solved with stabilization strategies) and, therefore, carotenoid-based colorants appear as a valid solution for application in the pastry sector, that greatly relies on yellow/orange artificial colorants.
