Incorporation of natural colorants obtained from edible flowers in yogurts

The substitution of artificial dyes by natural colouring agents is among the top concerns of food industry to fulfil current consuming trends, justifying the prospection of novel natural sources of these compounds. Herein, the hydrophilic extracts from rose, cornflower and dahlia were tested as potential substitutes to E163 (anthocyanin extract). Besides comparing the colouring capacity, the potential occurrence of changes in the chemical composition of yogurts (nutritional parameters, free sugars and fatty acids) was also assessed throughout storage (up to 7 days) and compared with a “blank” (free of any additive) yogurt formulation. In general, yogurts prepared with flower extracts, presented similar nutritional value and free sugars profile to those prepared with E163 and to the “blank” yogurt. Nevertheless, rose extract turned out to be the most suitable alternative to E163 as these two groups of yogurts had similar nutritional composition, free sugars and fatty acids composition, besides presenting close scores in colour parameters.