“Nature uses bright colours to make flowers and fruit more attractive to look at, at but the value of bright coloring is more than skin deep. The DSM Carotenoids range helps the food industry to make more colourful and healthier products.”

The colouring of the animal and vegetable kingdom is one of nature’s most magnificent achievements. Among nature’s pigments the carotenoids are the most common and provide us with some very interesting functions, the most important is to serve as an indicator for the identity and quality of a food source. Carotenoids are responsible for the yellow, orange and red colour shades of many fruits, vegetables and animal products. The appetizing colours of butter, eggs, carrots, tomatoes and lobsters are but a few examples. DSM carotenoids are food colours borrowed directly from nature. They are manufactured by synthesis as pure crystalline compounds, and then formulated into forms easy to apply. β-Carotene is probably the most prominent of the carotenoids and has numerous applications in colouring of foods. Apocarotenal, the “secret sister of β-Carotene”, is a provitamin A active carotenoid, which is found in citrus fruits and green vegetables, e.g. spinach.

β-Carotene – a healthy colour

β-Carotene is probably the best known of all carotenoids occurring in fruits and vegetables. Of the fifty or so carotenoids included in the human diet, β-Carotene is the most common, followed by alpha-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, lutein, zeaxanthin, and lycopene. These carotenoids have two different functions in nature: their colour makes flowers and animals attractive and, as bioactive substances, they support essential processes in the metabolism of micro-organisms, plants, animals and humans.

In nature, vivid yellow, orange and red colours communicate attractiveness and vitality, and the way we select food is also strongly connected with colours. Food manufacturers use this inborn predilection to increase acceptance of their products. β-Carotene has been used for decades as a safe, natural yellow to-orange red colourant for food and beverages.

Another reason to add this compound to food is its broad range of health benefits, such as protecting the body against oxidative damage, stimulating the immune system, protecting the skin against UV light, and becoming the main and safe dietary source of vitamin A.

Eating a healthy, balanced diet reduces our risk of falling victim to chronic diseases, as well as enhancing our wellbeing. Our diet should include at least five different portions of fruit and vegetables every day, in order to guarantee an adequate intake of important vitamins, fibre and carotenoids, including β-Carotene. However, common obstacles such as seasonal availability, a modern lifestyle, taste preferences and even allergies may make it difficult to follow this advice. Multi-vitamin juices and nectars and so-called ACE beverages are significant sources to enrich the diet with provitamin A, and have performed very well in many markets over decades.