Microbial pigments with health benefits - A mini review

Colour of a food substance is important to indicate its freshness and safety that are also indices of good aesthetic and sensorial values. Consumers are avoiding synthetic food colorants and ready to buy food products with natural colorants at premium price. The demand for natural source of such compounds is increasing day by day because of awareness of positive health benefit out of natural compounds. It is therefore, essential to explore various natural sources of food grade colorants and their use potentials. Most often, the colorants are extracted from plant material, but other sources such as insects, algae, bacteria, and fungi are used as well. Additionally, organisms other than plants can span the entire colour spectrum and thereby reducing dependence on synthetic colours. Microorganisms could be made to produce colorants in high yield by inserting genes coding for the colorant even colorants not naturally produced by microorganisms (e.g., turmeric) could be made in this way. Furthermore, natural colorants will not only be beneficial to the health of human beings, but it will be a boon for the preservation of biodiversity as harmful chemicals released into the environment while producing synthetic colorants could be stopped.