Food additives, chlorophyll

Although chlorophyll and chlorophyllin colorants seem to be easily obtained, in practice their production as natural food colorants is rather difficult. The sensitivity of chlorophylls to certain enzymes, heat, and low pH, and their low tinctorial strength greatly limit their manufacture and application as food additives, principally when the pigments are isolated from the protective environment of the chloroplasts. The well-known instability of chlorophylls prompted extensive research for developing... 

Sodium copper chlorophyllin, approved by the FDA as a color additive in citrus-based dry beverage mixes, should have a ratio of absorbance (SoretQ band) not less than 3.4 and not more than 3.9. In Europe, purity criteria of the food additives E141[i] and E141[ii], which are copper complexes of chlorophyll and chlorophyllin, respectively, are set out in the EC color specifications that include identification and spectrophotometric assay tests. ... 

Scotter, M.J., Castle, C., Roberts, D., Method development and HPLC analysis of retail foods and beverages for copper chlorophyll (E141[i]) and chlorophyllin (E14[ii]) food colouring materials. Food Additives and Contaminants, 22,1163, 2005. 

Despite their low (photo)stability, chlorophylls, or rather their derivatives, have found some applications, especially in the nutrition industry. In Europe the food additive E140 is chi, and E141 is chlorophyllin (a semisynthetic sodium/copper derivative of chlorophyll), and they are used in cakes, beverages, sweets, icecream etc. As color No 125 they find applications in toothpaste, as a soap pigment and in shampoos. The older literature also... 

Fats and Oils. The oxidation of fats and oils in food products can be prevented by the addition of citric acid to chelate the trace metals that catalyze the oxidation. Citric acid is also used in the bleaching clays and the degumming process during oil refining to remove chlorophyll and phosphohpids (59—63). 

In addition to the U.S. certified coal-tar colorants, some noncertified naturally occurring plant and animal colorants, such as alkanet, annatto [1393-63-17, carotene [36-884] C qH, chlorophyll [1406-65-17, cochineal [1260-17-9] saffron [138-55-6] and henna [83-72-7], can be used in cosmetics. In the United States, however, natural food colors, such as beet extract or powder, turmeric, and saffron, are not allowed as cosmetic colorants. 

Mass spectrometry has become an essential analytical tool for a wide variety of biomedical applications such as food chemistry and food analysis. Mass spectrometry is highly sensitive, fast, and selective. By combining mass spectrometry with HPLC, GC, or an additional stage of mass spectrometry (MS/MS), the selectivity increases considerably. As a result, mass spectrometry may be used for quantitative as well as qualitative analyses. In this manual, mass spectrometry is mentioned frequendy, and extensive discussions of mass spectrometry appear, for example, in units describing the analyses of carotenoids (unitfia) and chlorophylls (unit F4.5). In particular, these units include examples of LC/MS and MS/MS and the use of various ionization methods. 

All of the autotrophic monerans are collectively known as cyanobacteria. Because they contain chlorophyll, they can use the Sun s energy to make their own food. In addition to chlorophyll, these organisms possess two other pigments phyco-cyanin, a blue pigment, and phycoerthrin, a red one. The presence of these two accessory pigments helps cyanobacteria... 

Selection of a suitable extraction procedure can increase the concentration of phenolic diterpenes relative to the plant material. In addition, undesirable components can be removed prior to adding extracts to foods. For example, chlorophylls present in plant material may reduce the light stability of food during storage. Several extraction techniques have been patented (Nakatani et al., 1984 Aeschbach and Philippossian, 1989) using solvents with different polarity, such as petrol ether, hexane, toluene, acetone, methanol and ethanol. To obtain tailored extracts, the successive use of different solvents has been applied. 

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