Spirulina extract: a healthy colorant comparable to curcumin

When it comes to spirulina, the first reaction is often health food Because Spirulina is rich in protein and vitamins, it has been listed as a new resource food in China and is often used to make health food Spirulina is not only a health product in foreign countries, but also widely used in food industry as a colorant in food additives According to the Federal Register, the food and Drug Administration issued a notice on July 3, amending the regulations on food colorants and approving Spirulina extract as a colorant for cooked eggs According to the evaluation of FDA, it is safe to use Spirulina extract as a colorant for cooked eggs, which can be added according to the production demand The new regulations will come into effect on August 3 In 2015, the FDA approved Spirulina extract as a colorant for use in dietary supplements, pharmaceutical tablets and capsules In China, spirulina extract is also an important colorant It has been allowed to be used in frozen drinks, candy, spices, fruit and vegetable juice, flavor drinks and jelly Spirulina grows in tropical and subtropical alkaline salt lakes It is named Spirulina because of its spiral shape The protein content of Spirulina is as high as 60% - 70%, which is the highest in animals and plants discovered by human beings In addition, the composition of amino acids is reasonable, almost similar to human blood protein, and it is easily absorbed by human body Of the 17 amino acids contained in Spirulina, 8 are essential amino acids that cannot be synthesized by human body The study also found that Spirulina also contains a wide range of vitamins, which is the food with the highest content of vitamin B and carotene These amino acids and proteins endow Spirulina with the functions of enhancing immunity, regulating blood sugar and anti-tumor In addition, y-linolenic acid rich in Spirulina can reduce cholesterol in human body, which can effectively reduce hypertension and prevent heart disease In view of the nutritional value of spirulina, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed spirulina to enter the international market as a food additive after strict toxicity test At present, the annual output of spirulina powder in the world has reached more than 1000 tons Due to the cost and technical reasons, the natural pigments in gb2014 standard in China have been produced by food and beverage enterprises for a long time With the upgrading of consumer concept and the industrial upgrading of food industry, healthy and green natural colorants begin to show their skills At present, gb2014 in China has allowed the use of a variety of natural pigments Red kojic red kojic red refers to the liquid red kojic pigment extracted from red kojic rice with ethanol or the product extracted, crystallized and refined from the deep culture medium of Monascus Monascus red is the only natural functional food pigment produced by microbial fermentation in the world It has the characteristics of "nutrition, nature and multi-function" Compared with other natural pigments, Monascus red pigment has the advantages of high purity, low price, strong coloring power, good stability and antiseptic function, so it has great market competitiveness Curcumin curcumin is a kind of chemical component extracted from the rhizome of some plants in Zingiberaceae and Araceae It is mainly used for colouring sausage products, canned products, sauce and brine products in food production Medical research shows that curcumin has the functions of lowering blood lipid, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, cholagogic and anti-oxidation The global curcumin market is expected to reach US $94.3 million by 2022, according to new research from grand market assessment Curcumin in anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidation treatment characteristics make it very suitable for food and medical fields With the increasing consumer awareness of the above treatment attributes, the market prospect of curcumin is also bright.