Microbial pigments as next generation food colorants: unraveling structure, function relationships and biotechnological innovations

Abstract

Microbial pigments have been emerged as a promising next-generation food colourants because of increasing consumer demands for sustainable, natural, and health-promoting actions. Unlike plant-derived pigments, microbial pigments provide benefits like scalability, rapid production, and consistent yield independent of seasonal variations. More recent advancements in metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and technology of fermentation have enhanced pigment productivity and stability in a significant manner, enabling their industrial applications in the food systems. This review examines the diversity of microbial pigments critically, which includes Monascus pigments, carotenoids, betalains, riboflavin, melanin, together with their biosynthetic pathways and production strategies. Moreover, recent technological development in purification, extraction, and nano-encapsulation models are discussed for enhancing stability and functionality of pigments in the food matrices. An emerging trends like smart packing indicators, functional foods, and plant-based product formulations are likewise highlighted. In addition, experimental studies which includes microbial pigment characterization, covering spectroscopic analysis and electron microscope techniques, are thus summarized for illustrating their functional and structural properties. At last, current challenges related to the regulatory approval, toxicity concerns, production cost, and scalability are being addressed, and future research directions for the sustainable pigment production are discussed.