Hello!
We will talk about coloring agents in food today. These additives have a E-number between 100-200, and some are seen as dangerous, and others are not seen as harmful at all. We will also watch the chemical structure of some E-100 additives and see if there are any similarities in those molecular structure. Coloring agents are pharmacologically inactive substances which means that they should not affect people, only give a specific color to the food (since the substance is passive), and no unusual chemical reaction in the body should occur from it. In Australia and New Zeeland use the same additives during production of food, but they don’t call it E-numbers. They only label the food with a serial number that is unique for the product. They want each item to be traceable and identifiable, so that the consumer can always be sure of the authenticity of the product. Let’s look closer on the most important thing – the chemical structure!
We will explain this now on a little deeper level. E-100 is curcumin which is a turmeric complex. It’s a plant that has flowers of white/very light green color, and it requires a lot of rain and relatively warm climate to obtain optimal living conditions. Our food gets orange and yellow color that is derived from this ginger family. Curcumin itself has healthy antioxidants that are anti-inflammatory, but the picked-out component (the color) is not exactly the same thing.
This molecule is symmetric and is also called Diferuloyl Methane. C21H20O6 in question is a non-polar molecule that don’t have a minus and a plus pole. Since there are no permanent charges, it means that curcumin has an equal sharing of electrons over-all, in the different parts, and it can also be divided into two identical halves. Curcumin is also a phenol, which means that at least one hydroxyl group (-OH) can be found, and it is paired with an aromatic hydrocarbon group (I will develop the information about phenols very soon). During production of this colorant, you get some acetone, CO2 and methanol that have not been completely purified to save on the cost (difficult to get the by-products out of the structure), and the biproducts can give negative effects on the health. We will talk about the next E-number/food additive in the evening, I hope. In a few days we will do a comparison of the molecules in question!
Picture is borrowed from google.
Feel free to read more at: https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/approved-additives-and-e-numbers
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Very interesting! Thanks a lot!