Stability of anthocyanin extracts from chokeberry, grape, hibiscus, and purple sweet potato in ω-3-fatty acid rich oil-in-water emulsions

The food industry is actively investigating the stability of natural red pigments to replace artificial food colorants from all food applications in the near future. In this study, the stability of coloring extracts from chokeberry, grape, hibiscus, and purple sweet potato was investigated in ω-3 fatty acid-rich flaxseed oil-in-water emulsion during storage. The red color of the oil-in-water emulsions faded within 4 days, indicating that the anthocyanin extracts were susceptible to lipid oxidation reactions of the ω-3 fatty acids. The color stability varied between all used extract sources: The chokeberry (degradation constant k = 19.6 h−1) and grape (k = 15.2 h−1) extracts showed similar degradation kinetics, whereas purple sweet potato extract (k = 10.7 h−1) degraded significantly slower, and hibiscus extract (k = 110.2 h−1) significantly faster. The differences can be explained by the different anthocyanins contained in the plant extract, especially by the proportion of acylated anthocyanins.