Knowledge Bank

Recent consumer trends have increased the development of natural colorants from anthocyanins. Because of their limited color stability, they are restricted in their use as colorants. The purpose of this experiment is to see how a common water activity reducing additive, propylene glycol, affects the stability of anthocyanins extracted from red cabbage in different buffer solutions. It was hypothesized that increasing propylene glycol content and lowering water activity, hydration of anthocyanins would decrease thus increasing color intensity.