Food colouring is the substance used on food or drinks to change their colour.It could be used in commercial food production and also in domestic cooking.
Food colouring is normally added to food or drinks for reasons like:
-to enhance the original colour of the food
-to protect the food flavours and vitamins which could be damaged by light
-to offset the original colour loss due to light, air, moisture and some other factors
-to relate the food with certain flavour
Food colouring used in modern days could be of natural or artificial.
Examples of natural food colouring:
- caramel colouring made from sugar, used in 1 of the most famous products in the world, Cola.
- Elderberry juice
- Saffron (a type of flower)
- Turmeric (a type of plant)
And examples of artificial food coluring:
- Brilliant blue FCF
- Sunset yellow FCF
- Allura red AC
- Tartrazine (yellow shade)
Other than applying it on food, food colouring can also be used to paint pictures.
It can also be used as dye for dyeing clothes, cotton and nylon.
Where red colour food dye can be used as theatrical blood, the 'fake' blood used when shooting movies or performing on stage.
However, recent studies shown that certain types of artificial food dye could cause Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) , a neurobehavioral developmental disorder.
Therefore, some of the countries like Norway have already banned the use of certain types of artificial food dye.
