Food additives: production of microbial pigments and their antioxidant properties

•Synthetic food additives pose the risk of hazardous effects.•Natural pigments as food additives are in demand worldwide.•Novel techniques and strategies through biotechnology.•Explore commercial production of microbial pigments.

Synthetic food additives pose the risk of hazardous effects and toxicity to the consumers whereas the application of natural pigments as food additives is safer and in demand worldwide. Food industry worldwide is dependent on colors to make food appealing to the consumers and to add variety to the food types. Therefore, a need exists to explore the novel strains of microorganisms and suitable strategies for commercial production of microbial pigments, to meet the high demand of microbial pigments as food additives. Traditional methods of microbial isolation, development and extraction are now replaced with novel techniques and strategies through biotechnology; with the advent of fermentation technology and genetic engineering techniques. Current review describes the immense potential of microbes being used as food colorants and we also present an insight on novel strains and production methods which can be explored further for application in food industry.