Foods are colored with Curcumin, a food additive. Curcumin is a natural colorant that gives food an orange-yellow hue. The root of beet or Turmeric is used to produce it. The question is whether E100 is halal or haram it depends on whether it is produced with the plant’s base Turmeric then it is considered halal in food. The smell and taste of E100 Curcumin are pungent and strong. Acid and water are insoluble in them. Solvents such as acetic acid and ethanol dissolve it, however. The chemical formula of E100 is C21H20O6.
What Is E100?
A food additive derived from the plant Curcuma longa, Curcumin (E100) is a bright yellow colored natural food color. Curcumin is a polyphenol that dissolves easily in alcohol and ether but is insoluble in water due to its chemical nature. As the E100 colorant dissolves in alkaline solutions, it gets a brown-red color, while it does not change color in mineral acids.
Curcumin (E100 colorant) has the chemical formula C21H20O6. Curcumin’s structure was first defined in 1910.
The main parameters of the E100 food coloring additive are as follows:
- Yellow-orange color
- Burning and bitter taste
- Camphor-like smell.
Is E100 Halal?
Curcumin is produced by extracting powder from the root of the Curcuma plant with petroleum ether, followed by alcohol. The concentration of the resulting alcohol extract can be adjusted to meet colorant requirements. And whether it is halal or haram depends on the ingredients it is derived from. But the plant-based Tumeric additive is considered halal to use in food and other items.
The food industry uses two types of E100 food additives:
- Plumeless thistles and other plants of the genus Curcuma contain Curcumin (E100i food color additive).
- The turmeric root powder (E100ii food color additive) contains small fat cells and starchy particles similar to gelatin.
Is E100 Harmful?
Despite this, we must also remember that even substances beneficial to the body can have the opposite effect in large quantities. The use of drugs containing Curcumin during pregnancy may cause miscarriage, but little evidence supports this assumption.
As a result of technological costs, the composition of the E100 food additive may contain acetone, carbon dioxide, and methanol, which have toxic properties.
According to studies, the body removes most of the Curcumin from the body. The liver processes a small portion of the food coloring.
Usage Of E100 In Food Items
Curcumin was widely used in the food industry as a natural color because the E100 colorized both vegetable and animal fibers yellow.
E100 food additives containing Curcumin are used in the production of:
- Dairy products
- Margarine and butter
- A mustardy flavor
- The spices in curry are added to rice, vegetables, dough, meat, and fish dishes.
- Cans of food
- Jelly and jam
- Fats dehydrated
- Drinks with bitter flavors
- Products made from dairy (yogurt, ice cream)
- A sauce
- A ready-made mashed potato and groats dish.
Catering establishments serve meat and fish dishes (pates, hot dogs, sausages, boiled meat, salami). This color is used widely in confectionery, liqueur, and wine production, as well as in the alcoholic beverage industry, because of its bitter, burning taste and slightly camphor-scented smell.
Curcumin is used in traditional medicine in some countries. Chinese medicine uses it for treating abdominal pain, coughing, rheumatism, and loss of appetite, while Indian medicine uses it to treat coughing, rheumatism, and loss of appetite.
Benefits E100 Offer
Some of the therapeutic properties of Curcumin include the following:
- An anti-inflammatory agent,
- Having antioxidant properties,
- An antitumor agent.
- Curcuma was known for its therapeutic properties as early as the second millennium BC. Ancient Indians used it to treat a wide range of ailments.
- Curcumin’s anticancer properties are manifested by its ability to kill cancer cells naturally without affecting healthy cells.
- Curcumin has been proven to prevent beta amyloids from accumulating in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease and destroy platelets caused by the disease 2004.
Read more about E627 Halal or Haram.
