NatureCOLOURS: Natural colours delivered by yeast fermentation

Colour is an essential characteristic of food, associated with quality, freshness, and taste perception.

Natural and synthetic food dyesare added to processed foods to enhance or correct variations and give an expected colour to colourless foods, such as soft drinks orcandies.

Many synthetic colours cause hyperactivity in children, trigger hypersensitivity reactions, and some are carcinogenic in animalstudies. Natural colours do not have such adverse effects and are even health-promoting.

While natural colours are in high demand,their natural sources are limited.The goal of NatureCOLOURS project is to create a novel technology for making natural colours by yeast fermentation.

The projectwill bring a pallet of natural colours with health-beneficial effects to the consumer, create new industrial processes and new jobs inEurope, and contribute to the sustainable bioeconomy.