Effect of Atmospheric Contamination in the Application of Pigments in the Food Industry of Mexicali

Abstract

The use of pigments in the food industry has been of great importance in the last thirty years, to obtain better benefits in the process of commercialization of food products. The pigments are developed for a large amount of food, based on characteristics of the application methods. In addition, climatic conditions are considered in the storage and manufacturing processes, as well as the types of food and packaging that identify them. This is done with the aim of obtaining a good appearance, and being an attractive product for food consumers. Sometimes the pigments do not have good adherence and based on that, a study is carried out on pigments that lost their coloring properties quickly, as well as the foods in which they adhered. Correlations of air pollution were developed, observing the effect of Relative Humidity (RH) levels and temperatures higher than 80% and 40°C in the summer season, mainly in the months of July and August in the city of Mexicali. Food with defective levels of pigmentation must have been returned to manufacturing processes or be offered as food for pigs at a much lower cost than commercialized, causing economic losses for the company. The descriptive analysis was with the Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM) technique.