Many natural foods have their own colors, which can promote people's appetite and increase the secretion of digestive juice, thus facilitating digestion and absorption, and are important sensory indicators of food. However, natural foods are easy to fade or change color during processing and storage. In order to improve the color of food, people often add food pigments in the process of processing food to improve sensory characteristics.
Adding pigment to food is not a patent of modern people. In fact, in ancient China, people knew to brew red wine with monascus pigment. Since Parkin, an Englishman, synthesized the first artificial pigment, aniline violet, in 1856, artificial pigment has also appeared on the stage and played a role in improving the color of food.
Nowadays, there are two kinds of edible pigments in common use: natural pigments and synthetic pigments. Natural pigments are derived from natural materials, mainly extracted from plant tissues, and also include some pigments from animals and microorganisms. Synthetic pigment refers to the organic pigment prepared by artificial chemical synthesis, which is mainly made of aniline dye separated from coal tar.
For a long time, people have not realized the harm of synthetic pigments, and compared with natural pigments, synthetic pigments have the advantages of bright color, strong coloring, stable performance and low price. Synthetic pigments are widely used in food processing industry in many countries.
Some synthetic pigments can cause cancer.
With the development of society and the improvement of people's living standards, more and more people question whether the use of synthetic pigments in food may be harmful to human health. At the same time, a large number of research reports point out that almost all synthetic pigments can not provide nutrition to human body, and some synthetic pigments may even endanger human health.
The former Soviet Union conducted a long-term animal experiment on amaranth as food pigment in 1968- 1970, and found that its carcinogenic rate was as high as 22%. Researchers in the United States, Britain and other countries have also found that not only amaranth, but also many other synthetic pigments are harmful to human body, which may lead to decreased fertility and teratogenesis. Some pigments may be converted into carcinogens in the human body. Researchers say that synthetic pigments are made of coal tar, commonly known as coal tar pigments or aniline pigments, which are harmful to human body. Hazards include general toxicity, diarrhea, mutagenicity (gene mutation) and carcinogenesis.
In particular, the carcinogenic effect of azo compound synthetic pigment is more obvious. Azo compounds can be decomposed into three aromatic amines in vivo, which may cause cancer by interacting with target cells after metabolic activities in vivo. In addition, many edible synthetic pigments are toxic to themselves or their metabolites, and arsenic and lead may be mixed in the production process. Cream yellow, which was used to color margarine in the past, has long been proved whether it can cause liver cancer in humans and animals, while other kinds of synthetic pigments such as orange yellow can cause subcutaneous sarcoma, liver cancer, intestinal cancer and malignant lymphoma.
Attitudes of countries towards synthetic pigments
Countries all over the world, especially developed countries in the west, have not only done a lot of investigation and study on the influence of pigments on human health, but also have strict regulations on the management of edible pigments and the use of synthetic pigments, and many kinds of synthetic pigments are prohibited or strictly restricted.
In Denmark, researchers suggest that instead of banning the addition of pigments to food, it is better to indicate the types of pigments added on food labels. In this way, consumers can decide whether to buy food. In addition, the Danish government also decided to ban the use of pigments in basic foods and required that all added pigments must be indicated on food labels. Denmark took this action to ensure that people who are allergic to certain pigments eat basic foods without pigments.
Other countries restrict the use of certain pigments, especially azo pigments, in food more strictly. After years of efforts, the varieties of edible synthetic pigments that can be legally used have been greatly reduced. When synthetic pigments are used the most in the world, there are more than 100 varieties. There are 27 kinds of synthetic pigments approved for use in Japan, of which 16 has been banned. The United States 1960 allows the use of 35 kinds of synthetic pigments, and now only 7 kinds are left. Sweden, Finland, Norway, India, Denmark, France and other countries have already banned the use of azo pigments, and some countries such as Norway have completely banned the use of any chemical synthetic pigments. In addition, some countries have banned the addition of synthetic pigments to meat, fish and their processed products, fruits and their products, condiments, baby food, cakes and other foods.
China restricts the use of synthetic pigments.
In China, there are also strict restrictions on the addition of synthetic pigments to food: all meat and its processed products, fish and its processed products, spices such as vinegar, soy sauce and fermented bean curd, fruits and their products, milk and dairy products, baby food, biscuits and cakes are not allowed to use synthetic pigments. Only a small amount of soft drinks, cold drinks, candy, mixed wine and fruit juice can be used, generally not exceeding110000.
At present, there are six varieties of edible synthetic pigments approved for use in China, namely amaranth, carmine, lemon yellow, sunset yellow, indigo and brilliant blue. Although the harmfulness of these six kinds of edible synthetic pigments is inconclusive, they have no nutritional value and are not helpful to human health. Try not to eat it if you can.
In fact, driven by huge economic benefits, the use of synthetic pigments in food in China has been repeatedly banned. When buying food, everyone must be careful not to pursue the color of food too much.
The harm of pigment in cosmetics can not be ignored.
Synthetic pigment is not only widely used in food industry, but also has its shadow in cosmetics industry.
Cosmetics have become a necessity in people's daily life, but some substances in cosmetics often bring certain harm to the health of beauty lovers, including pigments.
Cosmetic is a daily chemical product, which contains many chemicals. According to statistics, at present, there are about 7,000 chemicals in the world as raw materials for cosmetics, which are mixed into various cosmetics in different proportions, and most cosmetics contain pigments.
According to a statistic, perfume is the most dangerous cosmetic raw material leading to skin dysfunction, followed by pigment and preservative, which is called the "three evils" of cosmetics. The damage proportion of spices is 50.6%, that of pigments is 43.9%, and that of antiseptic and bactericide is 4.9%.
In recent years, skin diseases caused by pigments have increased sharply, which has become a major topic for experts in the fields of medicine, beauty and cosmetic surgery, so that they named this new type of skin disease "cosmetic cosmetic cosmetic disease".
Some researchers have pointed out that the pigment in cosmetics has a certain relationship with the pigmentation of human skin. Pigmentation is a brown spot on normal skin, which seriously affects the image and runs counter to the intention of human beings to use cosmetics. The researchers said that the pigment contained in cosmetics is also a tar derivative, which is sensitive to light reaction for a long time, leading to pigmentation. Pigmentation caused by cosmetics is often accompanied by inflammation such as skin flushing and papules.
Lipstick is one of the most commonly used cosmetics. Because it is applied to the lips, it is very easy to slip into the body when eating. Generally speaking, swallowing a small amount of lipstick is unlikely to cause harm to the body, but lipstick contains pigments, which will cause potential harm to the body for a long time.
Pigment is also one of the important reasons that lead people to be allergic to cosmetics. It often causes allergic symptoms such as burning, itching, exfoliation of epidermis and slight pain.
Natural pigments are replacing synthetic pigments.
Corresponding to people's deeper understanding of the harm of synthetic pigments, natural pigments have been paid more and more attention.
Different from synthetic pigments, edible natural pigments are not only non-toxic, but also nutritious and even have pharmacological effects. At present, it has become the development trend of food and cosmetics industry to develop natural pigments and replace synthetic pigments with natural pigments.
It is reported that there are 97 kinds of natural pigments allowed in Japan, accounting for 90% of the market. There are 48 kinds of natural pigments allowed to be used in China.
However, due to the complex components of natural pigments, structural changes may occur during processing, and impurities may also be mixed, so they cannot be blindly considered to be absolutely pure and harmless. But it should be affirmed that modern production, management, analysis and testing, process improvement and other measures can reduce the adverse effects of synthetic pigments and natural pigments to a safe level. As long as synthetic pigments and natural pigments are used in strict accordance with national laws and regulations, pigments will bring joy and pleasure to people and our world will become better.