**2. Global Market Size for Yellow, Orange and Red Colored Pigments**

The economic crisis imposed by COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 profoundly influenced human life in several ways. Industrial sector suffered huge losses and long-term effects are expected in all sectors that had to adapt marketing policies to minimize economic breakdown [17]. Nevertheless, the market of additives for food industry may achieve 43.3 billion USD by 2021 [18] with the food colorant market alone being responsible for 3.75 billion USD [19]. The contribution of global food pigment (comprising carotenoids, caramel, curcumin and spirulina among others) market is projected to reach 1271.4 million USD by 2025 [20].

Although the good scenario and ascending numbers, prohibition or scrutiny of some artificial red colorant compounds and legal restrictions to their use in the food industry either by the Food and Drug Administration in the USA or by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) have been affecting the availability of food pigments and the color palette. A major issue related to synthetic compounds regards the azo-aromatic group present in the chemical structure of many red and yellow synthetic colorants. In the same way, allergy and other allegations have also been affecting the employment of yellow pigments such as tartrazine in foodstuff [21]. This becomes a problem, as the range of color yellow-red is essential in the food industry. Red, yellow, and orange, along with "clear" and white colors were associated with refreshing foods and beverages [22]. Even though the role of color in the market "is still in infancy", high color saturation captures consumer attention. For example, red color is protagonist in avoidance or approach motivations related to fresh fruits preference, as red color is associated with fruit ripening [23]. Color perception, together with visible fat and origin were reported as the main intrinsic attributes that drive choice of pork products by consumers from some emerging markets [24].

Innumerous compounds biosynthesized by plants have yellow, orange and red natural color, as determined by structural features. Some of them meet the requirements for using in food products such as anthocyanins (cyanidin), carotenoids (bixin), indole-derived glycosides (betanin), anthraquinones (carminic acid) and polyphenols (curcumin). Some information and market size for these pigments can be found in Figure 1.

**Figure 1.** Source, color, constitution and global market size (GMS) data for some vegetal-originated colored compounds [25–29].
