Export of natural pigment plant extracts

Although the abuse of food additives has been widely criticized in the world, in fact, the world food industry has been inseparable from food additives Before food additives attracted the attention of the domestic society, European and American countries had generally worried that the frequent consumption of food and drink containing chemical synthetic pigments would induce diseases such as tumors or allergies, and now more and more natural pigments are used to replace chemical synthetic pigments According to the export trend in recent years, the demand for natural pigments in emerging markets such as Spain and Mexico has increased greatly, and the demand for natural pigments in EU market has increased rapidly with an average annual growth rate of 35% Natural pigments refer to pigments from plants or animals Among all kinds of food additives, natural pigments only account for less than 0.5% of the world food additive market Due to the lack of relevant statistics, the specific total sales volume of food pigments in the world is unknown, estimated at about 800-900 million US dollars, far lower than the market sales of sweeteners There are hundreds of natural pigments developed by foreign manufacturers, but only one or twenty of them are actually used in large quantities The natural pigments commonly used in foreign food industry are: caramel pigment (with annual sales of more than 60000 tons in the world), curcumin, capsanthin, carmine fruit pigment, β - carotene, cabbage juice, beet red, grape purple, magenta, titanium dioxide, chlorophyll copper, Chlorella and spirulina, etc Chlorella and spirulina, in particular, are not only rich in chlorophyll but also other health care substances, which belong to nutritional natural pigment products Other best-selling natural pigment products include saffron, Monascus, cocoa shell, black bean pigment, etc., but the dosage is small Since 2000, China's natural pigment industry has developed rapidly By 2004, the total output of natural pigment in China has reached 210000 tons It is estimated that the output of natural pigment in China last year has exceeded 300000 tons At present, China exports about 18 varieties of natural pigments, with an annual export amount of about 400-500 million US dollars, mainly including beet red, red koji, hot pepper red, sorghum red, lutein, radish red, cocoa shell brown, shellac red, curcumin, safflower yellow pigment and other varieties In recent years, the export of natural pigments in China has increased rapidly In addition to the above bulk varieties, including gardenia yellow, seabuckthorn yellow, perilla purple, grape purple, amaranth, acorn shell brown, black bean pigment and other small varieties of natural pigments are also popular in European, American and Japanese markets Because these natural pigments not only have good coloring, but also have health care functions, such as black bean pigment can prevent vision loss, etc., and most of the pigments with deep color contain anthocyanins, which have many health functions, such as free radical trapping, anti-cancer, anti-aging and anti-inflammatory, etc., therefore, black bean pigment, grape violet and other natural purple pigment varieties are particularly popular in the international market It can be predicted that in the next few years, all kinds of natural pigment products will continue to be popular and become an important category of Chinese extract export.