AUTHOR=Egea Mariana Buranelo , Dantas Luciana Arantes , Sousa Tainara Leal de , Lima Alan Gomes , Lemes Ailton Cesar 

TITLE=The potential, strategies, and challenges of Monascus pigment for food application

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

VOLUME=Volume 7 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1141644

DOI=10.3389/fsufs.2023.1141644

ISSN=2571-581X

ABSTRACT=Pigments are used to provide color in the food production process, greater attractiveness, and acceptability, compensate the color loss in food that occurred by industrial processing and storage, determine the identity of certain products, standardize or intensify color, as well as provide color to foods originally colorless, among others. The demand for natural pigments for application in the food industry has been continuously increasing in substitution for synthetic pigments by hypersensitivity, carcinogenesis, and negative environmental impacts. Natural pigments are colored substances derived from natural sources, that have lower time of biodegradability, greater compatibility with the environment, and fewer adverse health effects compared with synthetic pigments. In this sense, great focus has been given to the biotechnological potential of species of Monascus sp. to produce red, orange, and yellow pigments using different types of the fermentation process (submerged or in solid-state fermentation), substrates (synthetic, natural, and by-products) and process parameters (temperature, pH, agitation, aeration, etc.), aiming at optimizing and reducing costs in pigment production. In this sense, this mini-review presents the trend of production and applying Monascus pigment in foods, as well as its strategies and challenges.