The effect of fucoxanthin as coloring agent on the quality of Shrimp Paste

Abstract

Colour is one of quality attributes of shrimp paste where some industries add non-food grade colouring agent, which may possibly generate adverse effects for customer. The development of colouring agent for shrimp paste is a crucial field of study in the food technology. Fucoxanthin, a yellow pigment extracted from Sargassum sp. which was proven capable of possessing antioxidant activity was used in this study to colorize the produced shrimp paste. The fucoxanthin concentration of 0%, 3%, 6%, 9%, and 12% was designed by using a completely randomized design with four replications of each level. This research revealed that the addition of fucoxanthin significantly affected the colour (L∗, a∗, b∗, and °hue), but did not significantly affect the preference of odour and texture. This study investigated that the fucoxanthin concentration of 12% was the best concentration.