Dyes from natural ingredients. How to make them correctly and how to use them in everyday life?

Cakes, pastries, marmalade and other goodies look, of course, very beautiful and appetizing in tandem with bright synthetic dyes, but this is harmful and even dangerous to health. Natural dyes can come in handy anywhere. Children's cakes are often made from them, on which various figures of cartoon characters made of mastic flaunt on top.

Dyes of this kind are also used to create finger paints for children, they can also be used by adults who are allergic to the components of conventional paints. In our article, we will talk about how you can make dyes at home, which will not only give a beautiful shade to food, but also make them more useful. And children's creativity with such dyes will turn into a safe and useful game.

How to make natural food coloring, red natural coloring

The dominant role of all products with a red tint is occupied by beets. From this common vegetable in our country, you can get natural and healthy dyes from a delicate pink hue to a rich crimson color.

The dye based on this bright root crop is prepared according to several recipes. We will talk about the method of digesting the dye from the beet, and also tell about the express method for obtaining the desired color from the beet mass.

So first about fast way getting red paint let's talk. To do this, a blender will rush to your aid. Just throw a couple of small beets into the bowl of this miracle food processor. But first wash the vegetable with diligence. You can use a metal sponge for this purpose, with it you can perfectly wash the beets.

Cut the washed beets with a knife into small pieces. Pour half a glass of clean water into the blender to the beets. Then turn on the blender and grind the root crops almost into a puree. Then move the gruel to cheesecloth and squeeze out the juice. So you got a biologically pure dye, congratulations!

Now let's talk about the second method of obtaining dye from beets. First, wash the root crop and remove the skin from it. Then prepare a grater and grate the beets coarsely. After this manipulation, move the beet mass into a saucepan and fill it with water so that the beets are just hiding there.

Now start cooking the dye vegetable. The fire must be small. Make sure the lid on the saucepan is tightly closed. Boil beets for an hour. In order for the dye not to become less bright, throw half a teaspoon of "lemon" into the saucepan during the cooking process.

As an hour passes, turn off the fire, and open the lid on the pan. Let the dye cool, and then use it for its intended purpose. Cake from beets can be separated using gauze or a strainer.

Another red color eco dye can be obtained from berries such as raspberries, cranberries, cherries and so on. Pomegranate juice also can be an excellent coloring agent. These products can not be cooked. With him, things are easier. Just squeeze out the juice and start painting.

Be careful. In the process of extracting juice from beets, pomegranates or berries, you can get your hands so dirty that washing them with simple soap and water will be unrealistic. Therefore, we recommend using ordinary thin rubber gloves as protective clothing. They can often be found on the hands of cooks.

If your hands are still dirty, and now they need to be washed urgently, resort to help citric acid. Just dissolve a bag of "lemon" in a deep bowl with hot water and then put your hands in there. You will see, the beet juice will be washed off quickly.

How to make green food coloring

The king among biologically pure dyes of green shades is spinach. With it, you can get both a rich green color and a delicate color of young grass.

If you want to color your food a light green, reminiscent of spring greens, then squeezing the juice from spinach will be enough. To do this, wash the spinach leaves and turn them in a meat grinder. Then fold it onto gauze, substitute a plate to collect juice from below and press harder. Juice will flow instantly. It is completely ready to be used in the kitchen.

If you want to achieve a rich green color, then you need to boil this juice along with chopped spinach. To do this, move the green mass twisted in a meat grinder into a saucepan or a large iron mug and put on a slow fire. Boil it for about 40 minutes. You will see how the juice gradually begins to become more intense in color. Then cool it, strain through a fine sieve or gauze cloth and use in cooking.

How to make blue food coloring

If you already have other natural food colorings in your arsenal, then blue can be obtained by mixing green and red. Yes, yes, the same ones that we made from beets and spinach. If there are none, then go to the store for red cabbage, and then start creating blue eco paint in your kitchen.

An excellent blue color can be obtained from red cabbage. Chop it or just cut it into pieces. Then put in a saucepan and pour water there. Don't pour too much liquid. Just let the cabbage lightly cover with water.

Boil the vegetable for half an hour. When you open the lid after 30 minutes, you will see that the water has turned blue. If you want to achieve a more saturated shade, throw a spoonful of baking soda into the water, the water will immediately become brighter. Hold the cabbage in water until it cools completely, and then drain the resulting natural dye into a separate container to use it later for any purpose.

If you need blue with a hint of purple, then an ordinary eggplant will come to the rescue. To meet him on the shelves of supermarkets is not a problem at all. First, place the "blue friend" from the garden in the freezer. Let him lie there for about half an hour.

Then remove the “clothes” in the form of a peel from the vegetable. Then move these eggplant crusts to a blender and turn into a pulp. And after this operation, squeeze the juice out of them using gauze.

Blueberries can also give a blue-violet hue. Well, if you want to get such a dye in the summer, during the ripening period of this dye-berry. Take half a glass of berries fresh and mix with a quarter cup of water. Then wipe thoroughly with a fork to get a homogeneous gruel.

After that, it is better to put on gloves on your hands so that the skin does not turn blue. Blueberry juice is very difficult to wash off hands, and it is unlikely to be washed off clothes at all. So, armed with protective seals, move the gruel from the blueberries to the cheesecloth and squeeze the juice with pressing movements.

How to make black food coloring

Not to be dispensed with in the cooking process, say baby cake, and without black paint. For example, when creating characters from a cartoon on a cake, the culinary specialist draws eyes, a nose and some items of clothing with black paint. For boys they often make cakes with soccer ball. Of course, here you can not do without black natural dye.

Cocoa acts as a black coloring pigment among the products. But do not think that this is the usual variety of this drink. Cocoa should be bought only special, varieties "Dutch Ultra". This cocoa has a darker color compared to its relatives. The dye from such cocoa turns black.

To get the desired shade, simply mix a couple of tablespoons of cocoa with a little water and heat. And then the cooled mixture can be used to color something. Another black color can also be obtained from cuttlefish ink, but in this case the salty taste of this biological dye will be transferred to the dish.

How to make yellow food coloring

To give the dough, cream or anything else a yellow color, a spice called turmeric will help. It can be found on the shelves of the store, packaged in bags. This spice has a spicy taste with hints of orange.

To make eco dye, mix a tablespoon of this colorful spice with a glass of water. Then put this mixture on fire and boil for a couple of minutes. Next, let it cool down. When the mixture becomes cold, you can use it for its intended purpose.

Remember that turmeric "likes" to color the wrong things. For example, clothes, skin, furniture, floor and so on can suffer from it. Everything that comes into contact with this miracle spice turns into a sunny color. Therefore, take precautions when working with such a natural dye. And it is also worth noting that such a dye is stored in the refrigerator, in a closed jar for no more than 15 days.

A delicate yellow shade can be obtained from citrus. More precisely, you will need a lemon for this purpose. Take a large fruit and rinse it under running warm water. Then prepare a grater with small holes. Grate the zest of the lemon, and then put it on cheesecloth and squeeze out the juice. You will get a fragrant and very delicate, sunny shade of yellow.

There is another option for extracting a yellow natural dye. This time, saffron will be used. Just grind it with a knife or with a blender. then pour a small amount = m of vodka and put in a dark place for a day. It is best to choose a glass jar with a tight lid as a container.

As the day passes, remove the jar and strain the mixture in it. Then use this yellow tincture to cook or color anything you like. Vodka will add to the dishes spicy taste and delicate fragrance. For children's paints, of course, it is better not to use such a dye, but to replace it with a non-alcoholic version.

How to make blue food coloring

Blue dye of natural food origin can be obtained by diluting with milk the blue dye that we extracted from red cabbage. Just add a few tablespoons of milk to the juice obtained from boiling cabbage.

Adjust the intensity to your liking. If you need a rich blue. then do not pour a lot of milk, and if you need a slightly bluish shade, then pour in more milk.

How to use natural food coloring:

In the business of coloring food and creating cakes with homemade dyes, you need to know certain subtleties.

for cream

If you use natural eco dye as a cream color, then add dye at the end of preparation. Do not pour in the dye before whipping. Otherwise, you will not be able to achieve the desired consistency from the cream. During whipping, the dye can only interfere.

Do not put a lot of dye at once in order to achieve a rich cream color. As soon as you whip the cream, drop a little coloring liquid, mix gently and see what color the product turns out. Basically, a few drops of food coloring are enough for the cream to “dress” in the shade that you need.

for meringue

If you are preparing meringue, then also pour in the dye as a last resort and very carefully. Note that meringues are rarely dyed; even in white, they ask to be put into the mouth. If we warned that you need to be careful with the cream so as not to harm the consistency, then you need to be even more careful with the meringue. An extra drop of liquid may not play in favor of a beautiful and mouth-watering meringue.

First, beat the protein with sugar. Usually taken for every 50 grams of sugar 1 protein of a large egg. Remember that sugar must be added gradually so that the meringue turns out to be tender and fluffy, without sugar crystals in its composition. At the end of cooking, when you no longer feel sugar on your teeth, you can add dye, but very carefully. A drop of paint will be enough.

for biscuit

If you bake a cake yourself and want to decorate the cakes for it, then it is better to do this when the cake is already removed from the oven, and not at the time of kneading the dough. This is especially true of various intense colors, such as red, blue, green. But yellow or brown can be added to the dough during the kneading process.

Cocoa is often added to the dough during kneading to make the cake brown. According to the recipe, this is done when baking the Zebra cake. Cocoa is placed in one part of the dough in this recipe, and nothing is added to the other and it remains white.

Then one, then the second part of the dough is alternately poured onto the baking sheet and circles are drawn on the surface of the dough with a fork or knife. As a result, you will get a beautiful striped cake.

The use of natural food coloring in drawing

Natural dyes are widely used in art. For example, finger paints for children's creativity are often made on the basis of home dyes. They differ from purchased ones in that they can be eaten. Agree, because small children put everything in their mouths to try it by mouth. You can draw with finger paints from 6 months, as soon as the baby began to sit.

With such natural paints, you will be calm for the health of your child. Even if he tastes colors in the process of his creative impulse, this will not harm his health in any way, because there is no chemistry there. On the contrary, if you choose paints taking into account the child's eating habits, you can get 2 in 1, that is, a full snack or afternoon snack, and satisfy the baby's needs for creativity.

And how well such activities affect the mental abilities of the baby! Finger painting gives the child the opportunity to develop both hemispheres of his brain. As a result, you will grow up a very smart and creative child who will strive for new knowledge and skills. This is very important in today's world.

Dyes for finger paints can be taken any. You already have them ready. Now the matter has risen behind the basis for such paints.

To prepare eco paints, you will need the following:

• Wheat flour - 2 cups
• Salt - 5 tbsp. l.
• Sunflower vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. l.
• Water - 200 ml
• Food eco dyes - at your discretion

The components for finger paints just need to be mixed together. Pour water into flour, and not vice versa, to avoid the formation of a large number of lumps. It is better to take cold water.

After you mix all the ingredients (except dyes) in one container, spread the resulting mixture into jars that have lids. For this purpose, you can use gouache jars, if any, or jars from baby puree or a hundred something like that.

After that, start adding dyes. How to do them, we told a little higher. Then mix the base thoroughly so that the dye covers it completely. Store paints in the refrigerator with a tightly closed lid.

It is better not to store such paints for longer than 2-3 days. This can lead to the formation of harmful organisms inside the paints, and they can dry out. If possible, make finger paints new each time so that the baby receives only fresh food.

Note that a child can draw on paper with a finger with a simple tomato paste or spinach gruel. And if you give him a peeled carrot, then it will also leave traces on paper. Berry gruel is also good to draw. In addition, it is very tasty and healthy.

Now you know how to make natural eco dyes in your kitchen, which can be used not only for cooking a wide variety of culinary masterpieces but also for creativity.

Natural food colorings - easy, environmentally friendly and useful 95% of the information a person perceives with the help of the eyes, and making a dish brighter means making it more attractive. So, the juicy burgundy color of borscht or a multi-colored salad definitely stimulates the appetite. It is on this that the demand for food coloring in cooking is based.

For thousands of years, people have successfully used the gifts of nature, extracting food colors from them. Now we have incomparably more opportunities for such research - let's see how you can prepare natural food colors at home and what requirements we place on them.

Requirement 1 - Natural dye

Exclusively natural materials - extracts, pomace and juices, decoctions and tinctures from seeds and fruits of plants, from leaves and bark. Animal materials are not used to color food due to their strong characteristic taste, difficulty in obtaining and short shelf life.

Requirement 2 - Food coloring means edible

This requirement implies not only the edibility of the dye, but also a minimum of its own taste. Ideally, the dye should be completely tasteless ( onion peel) or add some zest along with the color (citrus zest or coffee). The taste of the coloring should not affect the taste of the final product, but this is difficult to implement in reality - and a separate problem when using natural colors is the result of mixing flavors and aromas.

Requirement 3 - Coloring food

This requirement includes durability and invariability of color - at least for a short time, although in these parameters natural dyes definitely lose to synthetic ones.

How to make natural food coloring at home

The beauty of natural food colors is their availability. These are the foods that we eat almost every day, familiar and healthy, inexpensive and accessible. Beets, carrots, spinach, spices, bright berries and citrus fruits - this is our rich arsenal at home.

The answer to the question “what to make natural food colors from” is at hand in every kitchen.
We can use:
1. Freshly squeezed juices from colored foods.
2. Shredded and fried their pulp.
3. Direct addition of fresh pulp to the final product.
Feel free to focus on the original color of the vegetable or fruit: if the beets are already dark red, then we will not get an orange or green dye from it. Accordingly, green spinach will not give us a red dye, no matter what we do with it.
However, with natural dyes, the same principles of mixing paints apply as with watercolors, gouache or synthetic dyes. If you want orange dye, mix red and yellow. Need green - mix yellow and blue food coloring.

How to Get Red Food Coloring and Pink Food Coloring

Beets and fresh red berries (raspberries, lingonberries, cherries) serve as sources to help get red food coloring and pink food coloring.
Contrary to popular belief, beets will not give us a rich red color - depending on the concentration, we will get shades from pale pink to burgundy. Grate fresh beets on a fine grater and simmer them in a small amount of water over low heat. When the beets are stewed and "give up color", squeeze the liquid through cheesecloth or a fine sieve. For a more vibrant and long-lasting color, add half a teaspoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice.
For a pure red, use freshly squeezed lingonberry juice, but don't forget its characteristic sour taste.
Raspberries will give various shades of pinkish and raspberry, cherry - darker shades of red.
If you use such natural dyes for cream, a few drops of juice will be enough to give an interesting shade.

Dye blue natural food

A pleasant blue and blue color is obtained using blueberries, blueberries or red cabbage. It is most convenient to crush blueberries or blueberries in a sieve or mesh colander and add the resulting natural blue food coloring to cream or dough.
Red cabbage juice gives an interesting blue or blue color. It is good to paint with this boiled juice egg white and decorate their salads.

yellow food coloring

Carrots, sea buckthorn, turmeric, saffron, citrus fruits give sunny shades of yellow and orange. Carrots - the most affordable option: grate bright carrots on a fine grater and fry them over low heat in vegetable oil. Squeeze the resulting slurry through gauze or through a thick sieve.
Sea buckthorn berry juice can be added to creams or dough, it will give us the same cheerful yellow tint.
You can find turmeric in any spice department, that too. a good option receive YELLOW FOOD DYE. Pour a tablespoon of dry powder with warm water or alcohol, hold for a day in a dark place and strain. Turmeric - a budget option saffron, it does not give such an amazing taste, but as a food coloring it works very well.

Green food coloring

The soft green color gives us spinach. There are two options: - use freshly squeezed juice of leaves and stems - stew chopped spinach in water and then rub the gruel through a thick sieve.
Spinach green food coloring is often used to color dough.

Synthetic dyes and their invented harm

The volumes of consumption of dyes are growing year by year, the requirements for the quality and safety of food colors are growing even faster - and manufacturers are simply forced to meet the needs of buyers.
The prototypes for many synthetic dyes are natural dyes. So, for example, curcumin or carotene are almost identical in composition to natural ones. In addition, the quality and safety of synthetic food colors is controlled by the WHO International Commission; all permitted for use are included in the Food Code - a code of quality standards for food and semi-finished products, which includes nutritional supplements.

Synthetic food additives are easier to use than natural ones, do not require preliminary preparation and special storage conditions, can be stored for a long time and definitely will not change the taste of cream or dough.
If you want to get not just pleasant shades, but bright natural colors - we offer you all types of food colors available today: dry, gel, liquid.

Proven manufacturers, guaranteed fresh and high-quality products, a huge selection of useful and pleasant little things for cooking - a supermarket for confectioners will do everything to make the cooking process a real pleasure for you.

If you look closely at the composition of many products, you can often find artificial ingredients there. Fortunately, many of them can be replaced with natural ones when cooking. The quality of the food will not change, but rather get better. Thus, at home, you can cook safe natural dye.

In cooked dishes, not only taste is important, but also appearance. That is why professional chefs pay special attention to their decoration. Of course, most of all culinary specialists try on desserts and sweets. Beautiful curls of cream, patterns of sprinkles are easy enough to reproduce at home, as well as color cakes and cream.

As dyes, it is better to use not purchased, but prepared with your own hands. The result is also colorful, but safer for health. Food coloring at home can be used to color creams, mastic, jellies, cakes, sauces.

Food coloring at home: cooking methods

Food coloring at home can be obtained from various vegetables and berries. For this, juice is squeezed out of them.

Pink and red shades are obtained from fresh or boiled beets. A small root crop is rubbed on a coarse grater and transferred to a saucepan. Grated beets are poured with water so that it barely covers the vegetable. Boil over low heat for 50-60 minutes. The beets are thrown through a sieve, draining the juice into a separate container. Add citric acid to the resulting liquid at the tip of the knife - so the color will be more resistant.

Pink shades can also be obtained from berries. Suitable for this: strawberries, raspberries, currants, cranberries. Usually they are kneaded, after which the juice is filtered through cheesecloth.

For coloring second courses, chopped tomatoes or tomato paste. You can adjust the color saturation with sour cream or cream.

How to make green dye? To do this, stock up on spinach. It is usually sold fresh in bunches or frozen in small bags. Fresh spinach is more suitable for dyeing. It must be washed, cut and put in a blender. Chop the spinach, put on cheesecloth and squeeze the juice out of it.

In a similar way, green dye at home is prepared from watercress. By the way, it can be used not only for desserts, but also for savory dishes. So spinach juice is used in the preparation of traditional Chinese food baozi. Spinach is added to yeast dough, in which the salty filling is then wrapped. The result is green round pies.

A delicate lilac color can be obtained from red cabbage. It is finely chopped, stewed with a small amount of water. After that, they are crushed with a blender and the juice is passed through gauze.

Color the cakes in Brown color the added cocoa will help. It is also added to creams. Dr. a way to get a sweet brown filling is chocolate ganache. It is prepared very simply and, in fact, is a cream that can be used to layer cakes and stuff cakes.

For ganache, 200 ml of cream (preferably fat, from 33 percent) is heated to a boil and poured over 200 g of broken dark chocolate. The mixture is stirred until the chocolate is completely melted. Chocolate ganache is left at room temperature for 40-60 minutes and then used for its intended purpose.

In another way, a brownish tint can be obtained using roasted sugar. To do this, sugar is mixed with water in a ratio of 5 to 1. The resulting mixture is heated in a small saucepan until the sugar dissolves. The mixture should turn brownish (while making sure that the solution does not burn, otherwise it will acquire an unpleasant aftertaste). The resulting solution is used for coloring desserts and sweet dishes.

Orange color is obtained with the help of carrots. To do this, it is rubbed on a grater and fried in a small amount of butter until it reaches fully prepared. Then the carrots are filtered through cheesecloth. The resulting liquid will be the dye.

Also, the saffron spice will help to give a yellowish tint to the dough.

Sweet creams for cakes and pastries can be colored in pastel colors with jam. Currants, raspberries, strawberries are suitable for this.

Dyes for mastic: recipes

Dyes are almost always used to create jewelry from mastic. They can give color to individual pieces of fondant, from which flower meadows, decorative patterns, stripes, and various figures are then molded. Basically, purchased concentrated food coloring is used for these purposes. Just a few drops are enough to give the mastic a rich color.

Home dyes are used a little differently. The fact is that for saturation of coloring you need to use very a large number of juice of beets, carrots and other vegetables and berries. In this case, the mastic becomes liquid and for density you need to constantly stir in powdered sugar.

Of course, you can get a bright mastic by staining with juice, but then there is another minus - the finished figures will taste like vegetables or berries. It turns out that homemade dyes are not quite suitable for a rich color. On the other hand, they are indispensable if you want to give pastel shades to the pastel. All you need is some juice.

Mastic: recipe

In order for the mastic to be painted more evenly, it is better to make it yourself.

Compound:

• American marshmallow marshmallow - 200 g
• Powdered sugar -250 g
• Lemon juice -2 cl. l.
• Butter -2 tbsp. l.

Cooking:

1. Put all the ingredients in one container and put in the microwave. Heat until everything is melted.
2. From the resulting soft mass, reminiscent of plasticine, you can immediately sculpt or pre-paint it.
3. For coloring, it is better to divide the mastic into small portions. On small pieces, you can choose the right shade by mixing the juices of beets, carrots, spinach. Having picked up the desired color, the juice is dripped onto the mastic and they begin to carefully mix and change the piece.

Dyes for mastic can be used not only for uniform coloring, but also for creating beautiful effects.

With a few drops of juice, you can give the mastic marble shades. To do this, apply a few drops of dye to the mastic in different places. Then pull it into a sausage and connect the edges. Next, you should continue to add the dye and then stretch and connect the mastic. Remember that the amount of dye to create marble patterns should be small. Also, do not knead the fondant for a long time - you can get a monochromatic color.

Homemade dyes are absolutely safe and can be used to color creams, sauces, and pastries. With their help, some tint mastic and homemade yogurt. The preparation of dyes comes down to the fact that juice or a solution is obtained from certain products, which are then used for coloring.

Natural food colors are useful not only for.

Experienced chefs have long been known: if you color products (cream for a cake, for example) not with industrial “chemistry”, but with dyes from natural ingredients, it will be both more useful and cheaper.

If it seemed to you that this would be a hard-to-reach way to give the desired shade, then you are mistaken. It's not that hard, we'll need regular products which you probably already have.

Look in the refrigerator or pantry and check your "bins" for beets, carrots, spinach. Citrus fruits or some red-blue berries (blackberries, blueberries, blueberries) will also come in handy. And if there is onion peel, it’s generally great.

Well, everything is clear with the husk: more often just with her help we paint Easter eggs. Colors can range from light yellow to deep brown. Also yellow gives the zest of a lemon or orange.

But what about other colors? If we want a multi-colored cream, then we can make yellow and brown from ... zhzhenki.

It is necessary to dilute sugar in water (in a ratio of five to one), place in a deep frying pan, put on fire and boil until dark brown. In small portions, water must be added to the resulting mass (5: 2). Strain this solution through cheesecloth, and you can paint eggs with this paint or add it to the cream.

Blackberry or blueberry will give a blue color. Red will come from raspberries, currants, cherries. But you will get delicate shades of red and pink from such a natural dye as beets.

It must be grated on a coarse grater, pour water and boil for about an hour. Then strain it all, add a little citric acid so that the color remains bright, and cool. In such water, you can keep eggs, dye fabric, or, again, decorate with it.

Such a natural dye carrot, will help you achieve orange shades. To do this, grate it also, fry in butter A couple of minutes. Squeezing carrots through cheesecloth, you will have natural dye orange.

The green color of the hostess is made from spinach, boiling it over low heat for 30-40 minutes, although its color will turn out to be rather weak. Want more saturated colors? Take the usual brilliant green from the first-aid kit.

By the way, just the time to remember the lessons of fine art at school. By mixing different colors you get new shades. For example, green with yellow will give you a beautiful blue paint. And what is important - it will be a natural food coloring!

So you can decorate anything, for example, or a T-shirt.

Three types of colorants are commonly used by food manufacturers:

• . Made from natural raw materials.
• . Fully synthetic.
• . Identical to natural.

Most often, it is precisely such dyes that are created artificially that are used. In addition, red food coloring is further modified to improve its properties. It is used to improve color and appearance product, a dye is used in order to restore the natural color of the product, which could be lost during its processing.

Food coloring red is actively used to give colorless products an attractive shade and create the appearance of diversity on store shelves. For the end consumer, color serves as an indicator of the freshness of products, brighter products are always considered much more recognizable among the mass of others.

Dyes responsible for color can be contained in it for natural reasons (this group includes beets, carrots, etc., the color of which is given to them by nature) or added by people in the process of preparation or processing.

How is the dye made?

You can make red food coloring using different technologies. The most popular way can be called the use of red rice, when using the fermentation technology on ordinary polished rice, mushrooms of a certain type are grown. In the process of its development, the fungus releases a pigment with a red tint.

As soon as the sealing process is completed, it is dried using a special technology to a powder or left in granules. The pigment is stored in them and can be used later to add to food products. The resulting pigment is very resistant to sunlight and temperature changes.

Natural red food coloring can also be obtained from leaves, a variety of root vegetables and berries of the appropriate shade. Wastes from the wine industry and canning factories can also be used for this purpose.

The amount of coloring pigment in each case will depend solely on the characteristics of the raw material, its degree of maturity and the climatic conditions in which it grew. In most cases, this mark does not exceed a couple of percent. Scientists today are trying to find as many ways as possible to create food colors of natural origin so that the use of synthetic additives that are harmful to the body can be completely eliminated.

Another food coloring that gives ready meals red tint, is betanin (E162), which is obtained by evaporation from beet juice extract. Usually it is used in the form of a powder, since it is very convenient and its properties are not lost from this. You can get a wide variety of shades - from purple to rich bloody, simply by changing the acidity of the medium used.

Betanin is not just a dye, it also plays an important role in the human body:

• . Helps break down plant and animal proteins.
• . Strengthens the walls of capillaries.
• . Reduces pressure.

How to make red dye at home?

All housewives want to cook for their family only as much as possible. healthy meals, but at the same time they look quite attractive. What can replace red food coloring and is it really possible to use natural dyes instead? There is a mass simple recipes which can be used.

You can get a rich red or pink color if you boil the berries (strawberries, raspberries, red currants, etc. red berries). As for vegetables, ripe red tomatoes will also come in handy to create red food coloring at home, bell pepper, red cabbage and even sweet paprika in powder form.

The most powerful dye is still considered beets, which must be thoroughly washed, peeled and grated before cooking. Next, the juice is poured with a small amount of water and boiled over low heat under a closed lid for at least 1 hour. To make the broth more saturated, and the color persistent, you need to add a little citric acid to the juice. After cooking, the broth should be cooled and strained with gauze.

The dye obtained as a result of manipulations meets the following requirements:

• . Completely harmless to all members of your family, even if you use a little more than the recommended dose.
• . Provides high-quality coloring of the product despite the amount of composition used.

Such food coloring can also be obtained in the process of mixing some shades. Be sure to take into account the fact that home-made dyes are short-lived and, when exposed to air and sunlight, can deteriorate very quickly. Therefore, it is recommended to use them completely immediately after preparation or store them in a tightly stoppered container that is not exposed to light.

Food coloring has been around for decades. Every first product off the supermarket shelf contains at least one dye. Many of them are on the list of permitted and do not harm health. But if you want to be completely sure of the safety of the products you use and cook unusual ones, colorful dishes for your family - better make dyes from simple vegetables or fruit.