Microbial pigments as an alternative to synthetic dyes and food additives: a brief review of recent studies.

Synthetic coloring agents have been broadly utilized in several industries such as food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetic and textile. Recent surveys on the potential of teratogenicity and carcinogenicity of synthetic dyes have expressed concerns regarding their use in foods. Worldwide, food industries have need for safe, natural and new colorings to add variety to foods and make them appealing to consumers. Natural colorings not only expand the marketability of the food product, but also add further healthful features such as antibacterial, antioxidant, anticancer and antiviral properties. Novel microbial strains should be explored to meet the increasing global search of natural pigments and suitable techniques must be developed for the marketable production of new pigments, using microbial cultures, viz., fungi, and bacteria. To address the issue of the natural coloring agents, this review presents the recent trends in several studies of microbial pigments, their biological properties and industrial applications.