**4. Conclusions**

*Lonicera caerulea* L. was assessed in terms of nutritional and chemical composition and revealed to be mostly composed of water and carbohydrates. It presented four different free sugars, five organic acids, two tocopherol isoforms, and twenty fatty acids, mostly polyunsaturated. Two non-anthocyanic phenolic compounds were detected, with 5-*O*-caffeoylquinic acid as the most abundant one, and six anthocyanins, with a prevalence of cyanidin-3-*O*-glucoside. The fruit hydroethanolic extract revealed excellent antioxidant properties and considerable antibacterial and antifungal activity. From the berries juice, it was possible to obtain two colouring formulations by spray-drying the samples with maltodextrin and a combination of maltodextrin with arabic gum. The developed colorants revealed good antioxidant and antimicrobial properties and did preserve their anthocyanin compounds and related coloration along twelve weeks of storage at room and refrigerated temperature, with neither microbial contamination nor cytotoxicity issues. Thus, food colorants obtained from *L. caerulea* should be considered for food application, in detriment to the most commonly used artificial ones, but also in other industries, such as cosmetics, textiles, or pharmaceuticals, among others. Further studies for the stabilization of these kinds of colourants should also be considered as well as the exploitation of other anthocyanin-rich natural sources.

**Author Contributions:** Formal analysis, C.P.; Investigation, A.K.M. and E.N.V.; Methodology, M.I.D., J.C.M.B., S.A.H., P.R., I.P.F. and M.K.; Supervision, L.B. and I.C.F.R.F.; Validation, P.R. and M.S.; Writing—original draft, C.P. and L.B.; Writing—review and editing, M.F.B. and I.C.F.R.F.

**Funding:** The authors are grateful to Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Programme PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2019), and FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) and FCT for financial support to LSRE-LCM (UID/EQU/50020/2019); national funding by FCT, P.I., through the institutional scientific employment program-contract for M.I. Dias, I.P.F., and L. Barros, and through the individual scientific employment program-contract for S.A. Heleno and J. Barreira; C. Pereira's contract though the celebration of program-contract foreseen in No. 4, 5 and 6 of article 23º of Decree-Law No. 57/2016, of 29th August, amended by Law No. 57/2017, of 19th July; to FEDER-Interreg España-Portugal programme for financial support through the project 0377\_Iberphenol\_6\_E; the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Regional Operational Program North 2020, within the scope of Project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-023289: DeCodE and project Mobilizador Norte-01-0247-FEDER-024479: ValorNatural®.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors are grateful to the "Ponto Agrícola-Unipessoal, Lda." company for the supply of samples.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
