Apocarotenal

Apocarotenal is a carotenoid with orange-to-orange-red color found in many fruits and vegetables (citruses, spinach, etc) that is used in foods, drugs, personal care applications, and decorative cosmetics as a safe colorant or pigment. In the food industry, it is marked as E160e and used for its color in margarine, beverages, and dairy products, as an antioxidant, and vitamin A precursor (pro-vitamin A).

Apocarotenal is particularly useful as its yellow-to-red color (Color index is 40820) is an excellent match to most artificial colorants and pigments in that range. The carotenoids are offered in a number of different formulations (delivery forms), which allow them to be easily incorporated into all sorts of skincare products and decorative cosmetics. Besides, the formulations provide protection for the carotenoids against manufacturing and storage conditions.

The fact that carotenoids are found in fruits and vegetables obviously makes them healthy substitutes for artificial colorants. Many carotenoids are also known as pro-vitamin A, which enable food manufacturers to claim vitamin A on their labels, but in the personal care industry, there are no such climes.

Combined with other carotenoids like beta-carotene, Apocarotenal enables a vast amount of color tones compared to artificial colorants, and many manufacturers replace them to avoid negative statements on their labels.