Pigments in your food

Cochineal carmine adsorbed on layered zinc hydroxide salt applied on mortadella to improve color stability

The pink/reddish color meat products characteristic of cured meat without the curing salts is a meat industry demand to serve consumers who are looking for healthy foods with the usual sensory characteristics. This study aimed to obtain and characterize a hybrid dye and use it as a replacer for curing salt in the production of pink/red color in mortadella stored for 40 days. A layered zinc hydroxide salt (ZHN) was obtained by alkaline precipitation to immobilize and increase cochineal carmine stability, obtaining the hybrid dye (ZHN-carmine) by ion exchange in aqueous solution. The ZHN-carmine was subjected to ultrasound to increase color intensity and reduce the amount of application. ZHN, cochineal carmine and ZHN-carmine were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction, Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Thermogravimetric Analysis and Differential Scanning Calorimetry. The ZHN-carmine was used in the mortadella elaboration traditionally prepared with nitrite/nitrate and/or carmine. In the characterization it was observed that carmine dye was adsorbed on the lamellar compound surface and over the mortadella storage, it ensures a more stable pink/reddish color than the others product formulations. A more intense color with lower L* and higher a* values was observed for mortadella added of ZHN-carmine ultrasound-assisted. Therefore, the lamellar matrix adsorbed with cochineal carmine may a suitable and useful alternative to obtain the pink/reddish color characteristic of cooked meat products by applying a natural hybrid dye.

Hybrid dye was obtained by adsorbing carmine dye on a layered zinc hydroxide salt

The hybrid-dye mortadella had a stable pink/reddish color characteristic

The ultrasound improved the color supplied by hybrid dye in mortadella

Hybrid dye may be used as curing salt replacer on mortadella without color loss