The brown color produced during the heating of many different foods comes, in part, from the Maillard reaction.
Maillard Reaction is a browning reaction between an amino group and a reducing group of a carbohydrate.
This reaction contributes to the golden crust of baked products, the browning of meats and the dark color of roasted coffee.
Proteins are directly involved in the color of the protein happens to be a pigment. Selected color pigments, such as chlorophyll are bound in the chloroplasts in a protein lipid matrix.
The meat turn grayish brown during cooking when protein holding the pigment becomes denatured. While milk appears white as light reflects odd the colloidal dispersion of milk protein.
The color of raw salmon flesh is a translucent deep pink red, which on smoking turns a more opaque light pink, as the conformation of the protein changes during processing light scattering within the fish increases.
The visible light range is only a small portion of the electromagnetic energy spectrum which ranges from wavelengths of 60 m for radio waves to 0.0001 nm for gamma waves.
Protein as a color in food
