Addition of color in food materials are common and widely used to maintain the real color and sometime to preserve it. Synthetic dyes have become more popular for several reasons but these dyes act as a potential source of various diseases from simple skin allergies to serious cancer.
"So, alternative natural sources for pigments are needed," says Assistant Professor Maria Afroz Toma of Department of Food Technology and Rural Industries, Bangladesh Agricultural university, Bangladesh.
“Our recent study suggest that soil-borne fungi are the good source of natural pigments for food industry which are more cost effective and can be harvested throughout the year with no side effects, as well as being eco-friendly and biodegradable” Toma noted.
“Using of pigment in food products extracted from soil-borne Aspergillus niger in Bangladesh is very new and so far this is the first attempt, but for industrial use, the food colorants must be approved by a responsible authority, e.g., the FDA or the BSTI.” Dr. Md. Muket Mahmud and Dr. Pravin Mishra (Co-authors of the study) added.
“In Vivo test in mice were performed for toxic analysis of the produced pigments maintaining animal welfare issue which further validate our dye quality to use in food products,” said by Prof. Dr. KHM Nazmul Hussain Nazir and Prof. Dr. Mahbubul Pratik Siddique, Department of Microbiology and Hygiene, Bangladesh Agricultural university, Bangladesh.
The original article “Isolation and Identification of Natural Colorant Producing Soil-Borne Aspergillus niger from Bangladesh and Extraction of the Pigment” is published in Foods by MDPI and full text available at https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10061280.
