SBIR Phase II: Biomanufacturing Red Natural Food Dye

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是开发用于给食品、药品和化妆品着色的合成化学品的天然替代品。一些大量合成着色剂对健康的负面影响正在推动对从生物来源获得的天然和安全着色剂的需求。该项目将推进一类天然色素的商业可行性，这些色素具有颜色、功能、稳定性和安全性等特性，使其成为有吸引力的食用色素。基于六年的大学研究，一种红色色素的潜在合适的植物来源已经确定。该项目的目标是开发一种商业工艺，从这种植物来源生产色素。该色素将作为一种合成红色色素的替代品进行测试，该色素已被广泛用作食品添加剂。我们的目标是提供一种天然替代品，以减少与人工着色剂相关的健康风险。这个SBIR二期项目建议从植物中开发一种天然红色色素作为替代食品色素添加剂。第一阶段证明了红色素可以小规模提取，并在食品应用中表现良好。这个第二期项目的目标是扩大这种红色色素的提取和纯化的商业流程，并进行进一步的性能测试。这种色素以前没有商业数量，将从一种主要作物的选定品种中生产出来。目标是在验证商业规模的条件下开发颜料生产的工艺。这将包括机械分离、食品级萃取和各种商业上可用的澄清系统的集成。产品将通过在一系列可能的食品和其他应用中检查热、pH和光稳定性来测试其性能特征和质量一致性。此外，还将对产量进行评估，以验证经济竞争力。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will be to develop natural alternatives to synthetic chemicals that are used to impart color to food, medicine, and cosmetics. Negative health impacts of some high volume synthetic colorants are driving demand for natural and safe colorants that are obtained from biological sources. This project will advance the commercial feasibility of a class of naturally occurring pigments that have properties of color, functionality, stability, and safety that make them attractive as food colorants. Based on six years of prior university research, a potentially suitable botanical source of a red pigment has been identified. The goal of this project is to develop a commercial process to produce the pigment from this botanical source. The pigment will be tested as a replacement for a synthetic red pigment that has been widely used as a food additive. The goal is to provide a natural alternative to reduce the health risks associated with artificial colorants.This SBIR Phase II project proposes to develop a naturally occurring red pigment from a plant source as an alternative food color additive. Phase I demonstrated that the red pigment could be extracted at small-scale and performed well in food applications. The goal of this Phase II project is to scale up commercial processes for extraction and purification of this red pigment, and to conduct further performance testing. The pigment, which previously has not been available in commercial quantities, will be produced from a selected variety of a major crop species. The goal is to develop processes to scale pigment production under conditions that will validate a commercial scale. This will include the integration of mechanical separation, food grade extraction, and various commercially-available clarification systems. The products will be tested for performance characteristics and consistency of quality during scale up by examining thermal, pH, and light stability in a range of probable food and other applications. In addition, yield produced will be evaluated to validate economic competitiveness.