Abstract

Nowadays due to increasing demand of the food colors various companies are using food colorants to make their food more
merchandisable and marketable. Various types of colorants are available in the market as coloring agents which are commonly
used in food industries, some known synthetic colorants include brilliant blue, indigo carmine, citrus red, fast green, erythrosine,
and allura red. The main food bio-colorants are carotenoids, flavonoids, anthocyanins, chlorophyll, etc. There has been a rising
safety concern and health implications of the use of food colorants s in human diets. Consumer demand for natural colors
is enhanced as awareness about various toxic traits of synthetic food colors come to be known. This article examines the
concerns related to the over usage of synthetic colors that can cause harmful effects on health such as allergy, hypersensitivity,
and even cancerous growth. Furthermore, we have emphasized on using natural colorants in food industry as not only have
coloring properties, they have also been found to possess number of pharmacological properties such as anti mutagenic, anti-
inflammatory and anti-neoplastic, and anti-arthritic effects.