Natural edible pigment refers to the pigment directly from animal and plant tissues. Except Garcinia cambogia is highly toxic and not used, the rest are generally harmless to human health. Natural edible pigments that are allowed to be used in China and have established national standards include curcumin, shellac pigment, safflor yellow, sodium copper chlorophyllin, chili red pigment, sauce color, monascus rice and β-carotene.

Characteristics of natural food pigments: Because they come from natural animals and plants, their colors are not particularly bright after being added to food, and they are easy to fade when they encounter water or oil, and they smell no peculiar smell, only the taste of normal food.

Natural pigments can be divided into three categories according to their sources: plant pigments. Such as 1 1r in green leaves (green), carotene in carrots (orange yellow), lycopene in tomatoes (red), etc. Animal pigments, such as heme (red) in muscle and astaxanthin (red) in shrimp shells; Microbial pigments, such as monascus pigment (red) on the surface of soy sauce tofu.

Natural pigments can also be classified into porphyrin derivatives, isoprene derivatives, polyphenol derivatives, ketone derivatives, quinone derivatives and other six categories according to their structures.

Animal-derived pigments, cochineal red, lac red, phycocyanin, fish scale foil, hematoxylin pigment, shrimp shell pigment, lobster red pigment, crab shell pigment, phycocyanin, Nostoc blue pigment, laver pigment.

Plant-derived pigments, carotenoids, tomato pigment (lycopene), natural carotene, mixed carotenoids, corn yellow, rouge orange pigment, saffron pigment, gardenia yellow pigment, gardenia green pigment, capsicum red pigment, sweet pepper red pigment, capsicum orange pigment, pumpkin yellow pigment, seabuckthorn yellow pigment, dense yellow pigment, citrus yellow pigment, alfalfa pigment, marigold pigment, orange color, and capsicum orange pigment.

Pigment is the raw material that gives cosmetics a certain color. People often choose cosmetics according to their senses of sight, touch and smell, and pigment is an important part of vision, so whether pigment is used properly also plays a decisive role in the quality of products.

Synthetic pigments, edible pigments, pigments made from chemical synthesis are called synthetic pigments. Pigments used in cosmetics require high purity and are similar. This pigment is soluble in water and is suitable for hair care water, toilet water, honey and shampoo.

Inorganic pigments commonly used inorganic pigments include iron oxide, carbon black, chromium oxide green, etc. They have good light resistance and are insoluble in water.

Natural pigments commonly used include cochineal, cochineal, chlorophyll, curcumin and lycopene, which are characterized by non-toxicity.