Colorant Anthocyanin Biosynthesis for Supporting Clean Label Trend: A Review

Abstract

Color is a crucial attribute in product development. Anthocyanin as the well-known natural colorant currently entering synthetic biology for the mass production and achieving clean label trend. This paper reviewed anthocyanin as food colorant, the biosynthesis of anthocyanin and trend of anthocyanin and clean label. Anthocyanin is one of the subclasses of phenolic phytochemicals in the form of glycoside. The synthesis of anthocyanin related to the stability of its pigment as a colorant in the medium. The natural source of anthocyanin from plant is widely used to provide low toxicity. This natural colorant also found its activity against wide range of microorganism of food-borne pathogens. Meanwhile, natural sources of anthocyanin had many drawbacks including low stability, long process to standardize, and high expense to obtain pure extract. The availability of genes for the entire known pathways of anthocyanins open up the possibility for biosynthesis via several pathways such as flavanones. Currently, the biosynthetic of anthocyanins could be the best practice and alternative in supporting the clean label trends around worldwide.