The Quality Evaluation of Monascus Pigments and Red Yeast Rice of China

Red Yeast Rice and monascus pigments are main monascus products in China. Monascus pigments are used as natural food colorants. Red Yeast Rice can be used as material of monascus pigments or as nutrition supplement. The citrinin contamination in monascus products restricts the health development of monascus fermentation relative companies. We collected and investigated 20 monascus products from different companies in China. The quality evaluation was measured from three aspects as follow: pigments color values, monacolin k content, and contamination of citrinin. The results showed that 50% monascus pigments samples are superior in quality, which have higher color values without the citrinin contamination. Most of Red Yeast Rice samples absent of monacolin k. Only two Red Yeast Rice samples contain monacolin k, which accompanied with citrinin contamination.