Studying the Effects of Aqueous Safflower Extract as a Natural Colorant on Qualitative Parameters of Potato Chips During Storage

  Color is one of the main parameters for food evaluation and marketing which can be improved by the application of natural colorants with known health effects. In this research, the addition of safflower aqueous extract as a natural colorant was studied to improve the qualitative parameters of potato chips. For this purpose, safflower aqueous extract was prepared at 0.5, 1 and 2% concentrations and were added to potato chips by immersion and spraying. Color, texture and sensory analysis were carried out at different time intervals of 0, 30 and 60 days of storage at ambient temperature. The results showed that a* and b* increased and L* decreased as the safflower extract concentration increased while all color indices decreased during storage, significantly (p<0.05). According to the results of texture analysis, there was no significant difference between the hardness (brittleness) of control and immersion type specimens (p>0.05) during storage, while spraying method caused higher hardness as well as less brittleness in all the samples. Totally, the potato chips prepared by immersion gained the highest sensory scores (color, odor, taste, texture and overall acceptance). Potato chips prepared by immersion containing 2% of safflower extract was chosen as the best sample due to the highest b* (45.22±0.77), least hardness (highest brittleness) (4.63±0.37 N) and the most overall acceptance score (4.50±0.51) after 60 days and immersion method was more effective than the spraying for improving the color of potato chips