JPH05284934A - Composition for coloring food - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the composition comprising beta-carotene and spherical ferric oxide superfine particles, excellent in the light resistance and useful for coloring foods or medicines, especially for coloring soft gelatin, agar, boiled fish paste. etc. CONSTITUTION:The objective composition comprises 100 pts.wt. of beta-carotene and 5-2000 pts.wt. of spherical ferric oxide superfine particles having an average particle diameter of 0.03-0.09mum and an aspect ratio of >=0.7.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a coloring agent used for coloring foods and medicines, particularly soft gelatin, oils and fats such as margarine, agar, kamaboko, confectionery, and red ginger.

[0002]

As a food coloring agent, β-carotene is a main component of natural carotene and is yellow or orange-red and soluble in fats and oils, and is widely used as a coloring agent for foods such as margarine and fruit drinks. There is. This colorant has little toxicity, is not toxic to food coloring, and is very convenient because it has a clear and natural color tone, but it is unstable to light, and it rapidly fades to ultraviolet rays. There is a big drawback that it does.

Gelatin, especially soft gelatin containing water
-Light alteration is a fatal problem when coloring with carotenes. Soft gelatin is very widely used as a packaging material for drugs such as capsules. In that case, it also functions to protect the drug inside, so β is a coloring agent.
The deterioration of carotenes causes deterioration of the capsule itself, and even if the medicine is not changed, it causes unnecessary anxiety to the drug user, and the problem becomes more serious.

Fine particles of ferric oxide are also used as food colorants. This is a soft gelatin colorant
It has already been used as a light protection material in German Patent Publication 220.
No. 9526 and the like. However, in order to achieve both sufficient coloring and light protection with only ferric oxide, a relatively large amount of ferric oxide must be blended. Some countries regulate the amount of iron in the form of ferric oxide that can be taken daily. For example, in the United States, the upper limit of intake of iron in the form of ferric oxide is 5 mg per day.

As described above, the problem of using β-carotene alone and the problem of using ferric oxide alone can be improved by using a small amount of ferric oxide by combining β-carotene and ferric oxide. However, a proposal has been made to achieve both sufficient coloring, prevention of deterioration of β-carotene, and protection of capsule contents (JP-A-62-68860).

However, there is a problem in dispersion in gelatin due to the shape of ferric oxide (when the particle size is large or needle-like), and in some cases color separation may occur. When a strong dispersion treatment is applied, the material to be colored such as gelatin may deteriorate.

The problem of such color separation is similarly required to be solved for coloring other foods such as margarine, agar and kamaboko which are prone to oxidation and deterioration due to strong dispersion. Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with gelatin as a representative example, but it also covers foods that require coloring such as fats and oils, agar, and kamaboko.

[0008]

Β-Carotene is a coloring agent which is liable to be deteriorated by light, especially ultraviolet rays, but it is non-toxic to the human body and its use method, intake amount and the like are limited. Absent. In order to utilize this excellent property, a method of improving the light resistance by combining fine powder of ferric oxide has been proposed. However, ferric oxide has poor dispersibility and can be colored with β-carotene by leaving it alone. It was unavoidable to cause a split. An object of the present invention is to develop a stable food coloring composition comprising β-carotene and ferric oxide with little color separation.

[0009]

[Means for Solving the Problems] As a result of intensive studies on the following problems, β-carotene and an average particle size of 0.03 to 0.
By developing a food coloring composition comprising spherical ferric oxide ultrafine particles of 09 μm, a coloring agent having good dispersibility and excellent light resistance while maintaining a clear color tone. The present invention has been completed and the present invention has been completed.

As the spherical ferric oxide fine particles used in the present invention, those having a particle size of 0.03 to 0.09 μm such as hematite can be used, and they can be produced by the method disclosed in, for example, JP-A-2-271925. ..

In this case, the ferric oxide fine particles are required to have a shape having an aspect ratio (shown as a value obtained by dividing the short diameter of the particle by the long diameter) of about 0.7 or more. When the aspect ratio is 0.6 or less, the average particle size is 0.03 to
Even if it is 0.09 μm, it is easy to aggregate and the dispersibility decreases.

The average particle size is about 0.03 to 0.09 μm.
When the average particle diameter is less than 0.03, the ferric oxide fine particles have an increased cohesive force and a low dispersibility even if they are spherical. On the other hand, 0.09
When it is more than μm, the effect of forming fine particles decreases, the ultraviolet ray shielding ability per unit weight decreases, and the deterioration preventing function of β-carotene decreases.

In the food coloring composition of the present invention, the blending ratio of β-carotene and spherical ferric oxide is β-carotene 10.
The spherical ferric oxide is adjusted to 5 to 2000 parts by weight with respect to 0 parts by weight. When the compounding amount of spherical ferric oxide is less than 5 parts by weight, the ultraviolet shielding effect of the ferric oxide fine particles is small, and the mass change of β-carotene by ultraviolet rays increases,
The effect of compounding ferric oxide cannot be obtained. On the other hand, 200
A blending amount of more than 0 parts by weight is not preferable because it not only leads to an increase in the intake of iron, but an increase in the ultraviolet shielding effect can hardly be expected, and further the dispersibility as a food coloring composition is impaired.

Although gelatin coloring has been described above as a typical example, the fields to which the coloring composition of the present invention can be applied are not limited to this, and oils and fats such as margarine, cakes, agar,
It can be widely used in the fields of general colored foods such as kamaboko and soda water, soft drinks, and pharmaceuticals.

[0015]

The present invention relates to a food coloring composition containing spherical ferric oxide ultrafine particles having an average particle size of 0.03 to 0.09 μm in order to improve the light resistance of β-carotene, particularly the ultraviolet resistance.

While the conventional coloring composition comprising β-carotene-ferric oxide fine particles had a problem in dispersibility,
Examining the average particle size and aspect ratio of the fine particles, the dispersibility affects not only the average particle size of the fine particles but also the aspect ratio, and the appropriate blending ratio of β-carotene and spherical ferric oxide fine particles Therefore, a food coloring composition having excellent light resistance and dispersibility has been developed.

[0017]

【Example】

Example 1 The following raw materials were mixed with a ball mill containing glass beads for 1 hour to prepare a gelatin coloring composition. High-purity β-carotene 100 g 0.06 μm Spherical ferric oxide ultrafine particles * 50 g Glycerin (plasticizer) 200 g Water 100 g Gelatin 300 g * Product name: Nanotite (manufactured by Showa Denko KK), aspect ratio (minor axis / major axis) It is 0.7 or more. 20 g of the obtained composition for coloring gelatin was added to gelatin 100
0 g, glycerin 500 g, water 800 g with 3000 m
It was placed in a 1-liter beaker and mixed by a stirrer for 2 hours. The internal volume is about 0.27 ml (capsule weight 210 m
The capsule of g) was prepared and irradiated with a xenon lamp for 24 hours. As a result, no fading of the capsule was observed and no discoloration was observed. Next, a solution of a dihydropyridine derivative dye sensitive to light was filled in a capsule and irradiated with a xenon lamp for 24 hours, but no decomposition of the dihydropyridine derivative dye was observed.

(Example 2) 500 g of β-carotene and 50 g of spherical ferric oxide ultrafine particles (trade name: Nanotite Showa Denko) having an average particle size of 0.06 μm, 500 g of water and 100 g of glycerin were packed in glass beads having a diameter of 1 mm. Internal volume 1
A colorant was obtained by mixing with a liter sand mill for 10 minutes. 1 g of the slurry thus obtained, 7 g of agar and 50 parts of water
0 g was mixed at 60 ° C. and cooled in a refrigerator at 5 ° C. to obtain yellow-orange agar. The agar was exposed to white light for 24 hours and no color change was observed.

Comparative Example 1 The same experiment as in Example 1 was repeated.
Capsules of the same size were made without the addition of 06 μm spherical ferric oxide ultrafine particles. When this capsule was irradiated with a xenon lamp for 24 hours, the color of the capsule was discolored and almost no red color was observed. When the dihydropyridine derivative nifedipine was placed in a capsule and irradiated in the same manner, almost 100% was decomposed.

(Comparative Example 2) Needle-like ferric oxide ultrafine particles (TRAN) were used instead of the 0.06 μm spherical ferric oxide ultrafine particles.
S OXIDE RED K-5026 manufactured by Hilton Davis, length of crystal / diameter of crystal is 5-10, aspect ratio is 0.1-0.2), and the same experiment as in Example 1 was performed. .. Ferric oxide was not uniformly dispersed, and after stirring and leaving it alone, only ferric oxide sank and segregated. For this reason, the capsule did not absorb ultraviolet rays, and the β-carotene in the capsule and the filled dihydropyridine derivative dye were discolored, and a stable coloring composition could not be obtained.

[0021]

EFFECT OF THE INVENTION β-Carotene and Average Particle Size 0.03 ~
It is a food coloring composition containing 0.09 μm spherical ferric oxide ultrafine particles.

Proposals have been made to solve the problems of instability to light when using β-carotene alone and the allowable limit of intake when using ferric oxide alone, by using a coloring composition that is a mixture of both. However, the ferric oxide fine powder had poor dispersibility in β-carotene, and color separation was unavoidable.

In the present invention, when spherical ferric oxide having an average particle diameter of 0.03 to 0.09 μm is used as the ferric oxide fine particles, the dispersibility in β-carotene and the cohesiveness after dispersion are excellent. It was found that a stable food coloring composition was obtained.

The food coloring composition of the present invention is an excellent food coloring composition having a clear color tone, a large coloring amount with respect to the ferric oxide content, and little deterioration of β-carotene by light. In particular, when used as a capsule colorant for pharmaceuticals and the like, the capsule has not only the fading of the capsule itself but also excellent properties that protect the internal drug from being deteriorated by light.

Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display area C09C 1/24 6904-4J

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. β-carotene and an average particle size of 0.03 to 0.
A composition for food coloring, characterized by comprising spherical ferric oxide ultrafine particles of 09 μm. 2. The food coloring composition according to claim 1, wherein 5 to 2000 parts by weight of spherical ferric oxide ultrafine particles are mixed with 100 parts by weight of β-carotene. 3. The aspect ratio of spherical ferric oxide is 0.7.
The food coloring composition according to claim 1, which is the above.