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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annatto | 2/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annatto | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T14:14:52.937205+00:00 | kb-cron |
==== Cheese ==== In cheese, the yellow and orange hues naturally vary throughout the year as the cow's feed changes: in the summer, with fresh grass and its natural carotene content, the milk produced would have a natural orange tint, as would the cheese made from it, while at other times of the year, the tint would be greatly reduced. As the pigment is carried in the cream, skimming the milk, which some farmers did to make butter or to sell it separately, the lesser-quality cheese from such milk would be white. To fool the consumer, the cheesemakers introduced colorants to imitate the more intense colors of the finer summer cheese. Initially these colors came from saffron, marigold, and carrot juice, but later annatto came into use. In the 17th century, the Dutch, who had established colonies in Guyana, traded in food, particularly an orange-red natural colorant, annatto, with the indigenous communities. Zeeland traders under the authority of the West India Company bought annatto from the inhabitants of the coastal regions of Guyana and Suriname and sold it in the Netherlands as verw ('paint'). One contemporaneous description comes from Adriaen van Berkel, in a book published in 1695, though he does not mention whether it was used in cheese. The earliest known documentation of annatto's use in cheese is in a 1743 Dutch volume Huishoudelyk Woordboek (Household Dictionary), according to American scientist Paul Kindstedt of the University of Vermont. Other historical documents from the period confirm that annatto (then called "orleaan" or "orleans") was being used to color cheese by the mid-18th century. England is another country that has used annatto to color its cheeses; colorants have been added to Gloucester cheese as early as the 16th century to allow inferior cheese to masquerade as the best Double Gloucester, with annatto later being used for that purpose. This usage was subsequently adopted in other parts of the UK, for cheeses such as Cheshire and Red Leicester, as well as colored Cheddar made in Scotland. Many cheddars are produced in both white and red (orange) varieties, the only difference between the two being the presence of annatto as a coloring. That practice has extended to many modern processed cheese products, such as American cheese and Velveeta. Cheeses from other countries also use annatto, including Mimolette from France and Leyden from the Netherlands. Cheeses that use annatto in at least some preparations include:
== Chemical composition ==
The yellow to orange color is produced by the chemical compounds bixin and norbixin, which are classified as carotenoids. The fat-soluble color in the crude extract is called bixin, which can then be saponified into water-soluble norbixin. This dual solubility property of annatto is rare for carotenoids. The seeds contain 4.5–5.5% pigment, which consists of 70–80% bixin. Unlike beta-carotene, another well-known carotenoid, annatto-based pigments are not vitamin A precursors. The more norbixin in an annatto preparation, the more yellow it is; a higher level of bixin gives it a more orange hue.
== Safety == Annatto condiments and colorants are safe for most people when used in food amounts, but they may cause allergic reactions in those who are sensitive. In one 1978 study of 61 patients with chronic hives or angioedema, 56 patients were orally provoked by annatto extract during an elimination diet. A challenge was performed with a dose equivalent to the amount used in 25 grams (7⁄8 ounce) of butter. Twenty-six percent of the patients reacted to this color four hours after intake, worse than synthetic dyes, such as amaranth (9%), tartrazine (11%), sunset yellow FCF (17%), allura red AC (16%), ponceau 4R (15%), erythrosine (12%) and brilliant blue FCF (14%). Annatto is not among the "Big Eight" substances causing hypersensitivity reactions which are responsible for more than 90% of food related allergic reactions. The US FDA and experts at the Food Allergy Research and Resource Program (FARRP) of the University of Nebraska do not include annatto in the list of major food allergens.
== References ==
== Further reading == Allsop, Michael; Heal, Carolyn (1983). Cooking With Spices. Vermont, US: David & Charles. Lauro, Gabriel J.; Francis, F. Jack (2000). Natural Food Colorants Science and Technology. IFT Basic Symposium Series. New York: Marcel Dekker. Lust, John (1984). The Herb Book. New York: Bantam Books. Rosengarten Jr., F. (1969). The Book of Spices. Pennsylvania, US: Livingston Publishing Co.
== External links ==
Annatto at the Wikibooks Cookbook subproject Major Colorants and Dyestuffs Entering International Trade, Annatto Seed and Its Extracts Archived 8 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization