The Influence of Colorants on Cheese Quality

Abstract

Food colorants provide health benefits and remarkable technological and sensory characteristics to the food system. Alteration or preservation of the visible appearance of foods is possibly one of the main applications of natural or artificial colorants. Food colorants play a crucial role in food production, masking unpleasant attributes or enhancing the food products’ natural properties. Colorants can be added to food systems after extraction or could be part of the colored raw material. In this issue, Al-Surmi et al. report that the addition of colorants improved the composition and sensory properties of Ras Cheese. Moreover, more research is required to assess the impact of the processing conditions to which food products are subjected (high temperature, low moisture, among others) on the dyeing properties of natural food colorants. More research is needed to determine the impact of colorants at the varied pH and temperature conditions in the intended food systems.