Is caramel color harmful?

People who love to eat candy have relatively good knowledge about pigments. For example, some people know that many pigments are edible and will not harm the body if eaten in moderation. However, some pigments are relatively unfamiliar and have never been heard of, so they may worry that they may cause harm to the body. For example, caramel pigment has been studied and proven in our country. So is caramel pigment really harmful to the body?

Main Application

According to my country's "Hygienic Standards for the Use of Food Additives" (GB2760-1996): caramel color produced without or with ammonium salt can be used in canned food, candy, beverages, ice cream, soy sauce, vinegar, popsicles, popsicles and biscuits, and can be added according to normal production needs. Ammonium sulfite caramel can be used in rice wine and grape wine according to normal production needs.

Soft Drinks

Soft drinks are the largest consumer of caramel color in the world. Using original concentration of caramel color, generally less than 4g of caramel color is used for every 3L of beverage. If used in cola drinks, the dosage is doubled. Since it only adds 1 cal per liter of beverage, it has become the preferred coloring in the processing of diet drinks. There’s also a caramel coloring for root beer (a nonalcoholic beverage flavored with sassafras and wintergreen oils), which helps create the top foam and attractive red color. In carbonated beverages, caramel coloring acts as an emulsifier and prevents aromatic substances from separating.

Ethanol Beverages

Caramel color can be used in beer, whiskey, wine, rum and liqueurs, and the most commonly used are those that are stable in high-proof ethanol. One thing to consider for use in alcoholic beverages is the charge of the selected caramel color. Beer contains positively charged proteins. If negatively charged caramel color is added, it will aggregate into larger particles, form precipitation, and produce turbidity.

other

Soy sauce can be preserved with up to 15% salt, so a stable caramel color is needed to give the soy sauce product its natural fermented color. Caramel coloring can also be used to increase the appeal of baked goods. Liquid and powdered caramel coloring can be used in full or double strength to compensate for insufficient and uneven coloring in specialty breads, "top-dressing" cakes and cookie mixes. Cationic caramel coloring can function stably in malt vinegar, but its performance is unstable in the production of apple cider vinegar and distilled vinegar.