Screening natural pigments for making low nitrite Chinese bacon

The utilization of three natural pigments (monascus red, sorghum red and paprika red) was studied to decrease nitrite dosage in Chinese bacon and keep its ideal color to satisfy consumer's demand for color and luster. By observing the color changes and sensory evaluation of Chinese bacons stored at 0～4℃ and 15～20℃ respectively, monascus red performed the best in the three natural pigments, and its stability was significantly higher than others(p＜0.01). When the optimum adding dosage of monascus red is determined to 0.14 g/kg to partly substitute sodium nitrite, the adding dosage of sodium nitrite can be decreased to 0.04 g/kg according to the sensory evaluation.