Jan (jan.verhoeven@foodfocus.nl)
Mon, 24 Jan 2000 23:56:55 +0100
Hello,
I am in the process of compiling a publication about permitted food
color additives and came across the following. Maybe it is of help:
In the EU, like in USA, carotenes are permitted as food colors:
E-no. 160a(i): mixtures of carotenes. One of the permitted mixtures
is derived from algae, i.c. Dunaliella salina. These mixtures contain
(according to the "annex" of the legislation covering the purity of
the permitted colors): alpha- and beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin
and beta-criptoxanthin.
Zeaxanthin occurs in the publication mentioned by Andrew Strak.
Best regards,
Jan
visit my restyled site (also in English):
http://www.foodfocus.nl
On 23 Jan 00, at 20:54, Andrew Strak wrote:
> Peter,
>
> Thank you for your insight. The fish was from the Barents Sea (unknown
> exact location, though). In the meantime I have come across one old
> paper by E.G. Bligh and W.J. Dyer 'Orange-red Flesh in Cod and
> Haddock" - J.Fish.Res.Bd. Canada, 16(4), 1959 not probably listed in
> any database anymore. Astaxanthin and zeaxanthin in the proportion of
> 2:1 were found to be responsible for the pigmentation of the flesh of
> Cod. Zeaxanthin was the only pigment detected in the flesh of a
> similarly pigmented haddock. Therefore concerning the carotenoid
> identification you are probably right on the point. What strange is
> that the colour intensity seems to be increasing with the time in
> frozen storage. And the incidence of the number of fish affected by
> the phenomenum in this case is also pretty high (5%), unlike your
> experience or reported by Blight and Dyer. Apparently there must some
> cargo ship carrying corn went down recently :-).
>
> Andrew Strak
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: howgate <phowgate@rsc.co.uk>
> To: <abstrak@accesswave.ca>; 'Seafood List' <seafood@ucdavis.edu>
> Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2000 5:36 PM Subject: Re: Haddock Flesh
> Discolouration
>
>
> > Andrew
> >
> > On 21 January you showed two pictures of haddock, one discoloured. I
> assume
> > you were referring to the bright yellow fillet.
> >
> > Carotenoids can be taken up from the diet of animals and can colour
> > the flesh. A common example, in the USA at least, is the yellow
> > colour of corn-fed chickens. I assume this is due to the carotenoid,
> > zeaxanthin,
> that
> > imparts the yellow colour to corn. Nearer to home, the pink colour
> > of salmon, in the wild, is due predominately to the carotenoid
> > astaxanthin, and other carotenoids in minor amounts, from crustacea
> > in the diet. I can only write from experience of haddock landed in
> > Britain. I have come across light pink colouration in haddock, and
> > in cod, which is assumed to come from crustacea in the diet, but I
> > have not come across the yellow colour shown in your picture. A
> > number of carotenoids other than the pink astaxanthin and
> > canthaxanthin are found in marine animals. Polychaete
> worms
> > are sources of a variety of carotenoids and, as I recollect, are
> > described in: Simpson K.L. Katayama T. Chichester C.O., 1981,
> > Carotenoids in fish feeds. In: Carotenoids as Colorants and Vitamin
> > A Precursors, J.C. Bauernfeind, ed., Academic press, New York, pp
> > 463-534. I write
> 'recollect'
> > because I do not have a copy of this chapter, but I consulted the
> > book in one of the academic libraries in Aberdeen and I no longer
> > live in that city). Chemical analysis - not too difficult - will be
> > able to identify if the colour is a carotenoid, and its nature.
> >
> > Let me put forward as a hypothesis that the haddock in question have
> > been feeding on polychaete worms that contain a yellow carotenoid.
> > If you know the catching ground of the haddock, you might be able to
> > confirm from a marine laboratory if polychaete worms are likely to
> > be an item of the haddock diet. Unless they had been feeding on
> > corn!
> >
> > Given the known free-radical scavenging properties of carotenoids,
> > and the benefits to health of carotenoids in the diet, the yellow
> > colour should perhaps be seen as a benefit, not a defect.
> >
> > Peter Howgate
> >
>
>
____________________________________________
Ing. J.(Jan) A.M. Verhoeven, director of:
Foodfocus, consultancy- & service bureau food: technology and quality assurance
De Volder 32, NL-5283 ZD BOXTEL, The Netherlands
tel +31 411 67 56 39 fax +31 411 67 11 56
E-mail info@foodfocus.nl
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