Research Progress of Microorganisms Pigments in the Food Industry

Natural pigment is extracted from the animals and plants organization and microorganism cultivation. It has many characteristics such as natural bright colour and luster, high nutritional value, avirulent, harmless and high safety. It is a good method that natural pigment was produced by microorganism to solve the problems of raw material scarce and high costs. By the way, this way also could increase yield of natural pigment. In this paper, the microorganism pigment, monascus pigment, gardenia pigment, carotenoids, melanin, indigo were introduced and summarized. Characteristics of microorganism pigment were reviewed including breeding strains, extraction method, and recommendations on a variety of the microbial pigment in the industrial production.