Food Quality & Safety
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Food Quality & Safety‘s Mission
    • Contact Us
    • Authors
    • Manage Subscription
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Privacy Policy
  • Safety & Sanitation
    • Environmental Monitoring
    • Hygiene
    • Pest Control
    • Clean In Place
    • Allergens
    • Sanitizing
    • Training
  • Quality
    • Authenticity
    • Textures & Flavors
    • Labeling
    • Shelf Life
    • Outsourcing
    • Auditing/Validation
    • Supplier Programs
  • Testing
    • Seafood
    • Dairy
    • Hormones/Antibiotics
    • Produce
    • Ingredients
    • Beverages
    • Meat & Poultry
    • Animal Food
  • In the Lab
    • Lab Software
    • Pathogen Control
    • Physical Properties
    • Contaminants
    • Measurement
    • Sampling
  • Manufacturing & Distribution
    • Information Technology
    • Plant Design
    • Foreign Object Control
    • Temperature/Humidity
    • Packaging
    • Transportation
    • Tracking & Traceability
  • Food Service & Retail
    • Cleaning & Sanitizing
    • Stock Management
    • Hygiene
    • Food Preparation
    • Allergens
    • Education
    • Temperature Monitoring
  • Regulatory
    • FSMA
    • Guidelines & Regulations
    • Recalls
  • Resources
    • Whitepaper
    • Webinars
    • Video
    • Events
    • Food Library
    • Jobs
  • FQ&S Award
  • Search

Food Dyes Show Promise as Quality Probes

February 24, 2015 • By Gina Shaw

  • Tweet
Print-Friendly Version

Food dyes may be useful for more than just giving your cherry Jell-O that vivid red hue. In research described at the annual meeting of the Biophysical Society in early February, a team of food scientists from Rutgers University in New Jersey has found that common food dyes have the potential for use as edible probes of food quality.

You Might Also Like
  • Compression and Tension
  • Scraped Surface Heat Exchanger Technology in Crystallization
  • Go With the Flow: Advances in Flow Behavior Test Methods Improve Quality Control
Also by this Author
  • Loyalty Card Data Still Underutilized for Ensuring Food Safety

Standard fluorescent dyes used as probes in other fields are generally unsuitable for food quality testing, as they are either too toxic for human consumption or too expensive. But the Rutgers scientists say that the edible colors that already either occur naturally in, or are added to, many foods have the potential to act as fluorescent probes.

“Almost every food you eat is fluorescent under some circumstances,” says Richard Ludescher, PhD, a professor of food science at Rutgers. “With a range of applications, we are trying to establish the idea of using molecules that are naturally in or routinely added to food as intrinsic sensors of the quality of the food.”

Sarah Waxman, an undergraduate student in Dr. Ludescher’s lab, presented preliminary findings at the Biophysical Society meeting. The group tested the fluorescent properties of five edible food colors commonly added to food or medications consumed by humans: Allura Red, Sunset Yellow, Brilliant Blue, Fast Green, and a yellow dye called Tartrazine. All five colors fluoresced in a way that was easily distinguishable from the background; they emitted almost no light in pure water, but the light intensity increased when the dyes were added to thicker solutions.

“We’ve established that these molecules respond to viscosity in simple solutions like sugar water and glycerol water,” says Dr. Ludescher. “Next, we need to find out how they respond in more complicated compositions like foods—a pudding, for example. Could we develop a probe for pudding that allows you to measure its viscosity during manufacture?”

The group’s work is supported by funding from the USDA.


Shaw writes frequently about science, medicine, and health while serving as a regular contributor on notable medical publications.

Filed Under: eUpdate, Physical Properties, Quality, Textures & Flavors Tagged With: Food, food color, food dyes, Food Quality, food quality and safety, Food Safety, Quality, Safety

You Might Also Like:
  • Compression and Tension
  • Scraped Surface Heat Exchanger Technology in Crystallization
  • Go With the Flow: Advances in Flow Behavior Test Methods Improve Quality Control
  • No Differences Seen in Physical Quality of Retail Eggs

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Current Issue

April/May 2018

  • Issue Articles »
  • Digital Edition »
  • Subscribe »
  • Follow Us:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Food Quality & Safety Blog  

Challenges in Localizing Global Data Systems

As promising as big data systems may appear, numerous regions are encountering glitches in operation.

Previous posts »

Paid Partner Content

PURE Hard Surface

EPA registered food contact surface sanitizer and disinfectant delivers broad spectrum power to eliminate dangerous pathogens

Transport Sanitation Compliance

Disinfection application methodology ensures full coverage for all motor and rail vehicles, and is FSMA compliant

  • Recall News
  • Industry News
    • Vitakraft Recalls Pet Formula Due to Salmonella
    • K9 Natural Recalls Frozen Pet Food Because of Listeria
    • Seacrest Foods Recalls Soft Ripened Cheese Due to Listeria
    • Fresh Foods Manufacturing Recalls Salad Products Due to E. coli
    • Rose Acre Farms Recalls Shell Eggs Due to Salmonella
    View more »
    • Insect Farms Gear Up to Feed Global Protein Demand
    • U.S. Recalls More Than 200 Million Eggs over Salmonella Fears
    • Same Smoky Flavor, Less Carcinogens
    • South Korean Drinkers Discouraged from Mixing Wasps into Soju
    • Can Eco-Farming Solve Hunger and Climate Crises?
    View more »
2016 APEX Awards Winner ASBPE 2016 Regional Print Award Winner

Polls

Should Salmonella be considered an “adulterant” in raw chicken product?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive

Whitepapers

  • Ambient Intelligence – Transforming the Food Industry

View More Whitepapers »

Digital Editions

Prefer reading our issues digitally? Then flip through the pages of our print issues on your digital device!

View Digital Archive »

On-Demand Webinars

  • UPCOMING: Applying Risk-Based Thinking to Food Safety
  • UPCOMING: Detecting Veterinary Drug Residues

View More Webinars »

Food Quality & Safety (formerly Food Quality) is the established authority in delivering strategic and tactical approaches necessary for quality assurance, safety, and security in the food and beverage industry.

Advertise / Subscribe / Contact Us / Privacy Policy

ASBPE Award Winner

Copyright © 2000–2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., a Wiley Company. All rights reserved. ISSN 2399-1399

Wiley