1 - Food Color and Coloring Food: Quality, Differentiation and Regulatory Requirements in the European Union and the United States

Abstract

Throughout human history, food color has been a key trait of sensory quality evaluation. With the advent of processed food, food coloring has gained even more importance. According to consumers’ belief, food coloring should be as natural as possible; however, there is actually no standard regarding the “naturalness” of food coloring. Furthermore, “natural” does not necessarily mean “edible.” There are various options for food coloring, ranging from the addition of intensely colored food to coloration by synthetic (“artificial”) dyes. The use of “coloring food” offers the most natural way to “color food with food.” Legislation on the coloring and subsequent labeling of food is fundamentally different in the European Union and the United States. In the European Union, the guidance notes give guidance to differentiate “coloring food” from coloring additives by defining a borderline between selective and nonselective extraction through the calculation of enrichment factors and threshold values. In contrast, according to US regulations, it does not matter whether the coloring material represents a food or not. In this chapter, fundamentals for understanding EU and US legislation, including detailed examples, are presented. In addition, the limitations of the present regulations regarding consumers’ expectations and future perspectives are discussed.