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Annatto ( or ) is an orange-red condiment and food coloring derived from the seeds of the achiote tree ( Bixa orellana), native to tropics parts of the Americas. It is often used to impart a yellow to red-orange color to foods, but sometimes also for its flavor and aroma. Its scent is described as "slightly peppery with a hint of nutmeg" and its flavor as "slightly nutty, sweet, and peppery".
The color of annatto comes from various carotenoid , mainly bixin and norbixin, found in the reddish waxy coating of the seeds. The condiment is typically prepared by grinding the seeds to a powder or paste. Similar effects can be obtained by extracting some of the color and flavor principles from the seeds with hot water, oil, or lard, which are then added to the food.
Annatto and its extracts are now widely used in an artisanal or industrial scale as a coloring agent in many processed food products, such as cheeses, dairy spreads, butter and margarine, , and other baked goods, , snack foods, breakfast cereals, smoked fish, , and more. In these uses, annatto is a natural alternative to synthetic food coloring compounds, but it has been linked to rare cases of food-related allergy. Annatto is of particular commercial value in the United States because the Food and Drug Administration considers colorants derived from it to be "exempt of certification".
Annatto has been traditionally used as both a coloring and flavoring agent in various cuisines from Latin America, the Caribbean, the Philippines, and other countries where it was taken home by Spain and Portugal colonizers in the 16th century. It has various local names according to region. Its use has spread in historic times to other parts of the world, and it was incorporated in local culinary traditions of many countries outside the Americas.
In earlier times, the seeds of the plant were also used as a staple food in South and Central America. Today, an Inca recipe for beer made from cocoa, chilli, honey and annatto is available again. The recipe dates back to 1200 BC and is now marketed in North America under the trade name Dogfish Head Theobroma. In the prehistory and early history of South and Central America, the pure, soaked annatto seed was fermented with 5% honey for 10 days and sometimes used as a sole foodstuff. The continent's universities have now recognised the high nutrient content of the seed and are researching ways to reintroduce annatto as a foodstuff. However, practical solutions that would guarantee a basic food supply from the wild harvest have not yet been taken up again by the population.
To fool the consumer, the cheesemakers introduced colorants to imitate the more intense colors of the finer summer cheese. Initially these colors came from saffron, marigold, and carrot juice, but later annatto came into use.
In the 17th century, the Dutch, who had established colonies in Guyana, traded in food, particularly an orange-red natural colorant, annatto, with the indigenous communities. Zeeland traders under the authority of the West India Company bought annatto from the inhabitants of the coastal regions of Guyana and Suriname and sold it in the Netherlands as verw ('paint'). One contemporaneous description comes from Adriaen van Berkel, in a book published in 1695, though he does not mention whether it was used in cheese.
The earliest known documentation of annatto's use in cheese is in a 1743 Dutch volume Huishoudelyk Woordboek ( Household Dictionary), according to American scientist Paul Kindstedt of the University of Vermont. Other historical documents from the period confirm that annatto (then called "orleaan" or "orleans") was being used to color cheese by the mid-18th century.
England is another country that has used annatto to color its cheeses; colorants have been added to Gloucester cheese as early as the 16th century to allow inferior cheese to masquerade as the best Double Gloucester, with annatto later being used for that purpose. This usage was subsequently adopted in other parts of the UK, for cheeses such as Cheshire cheese and Red Leicester, as well as colored Cheddar cheese made in Scotland. Many cheddars are produced in both white and red (orange) varieties, the only difference between the two being the presence of annatto as a coloring. That practice has extended to many modern processed cheese products, such as American cheese and Velveeta. Cheeses from other countries also use annatto, including Mimolette from France and Leyden cheese from the Netherlands.
Cheeses that use annatto in at least some preparations include:
Annatto is not among the "Big Eight" substances causing hypersensitivity reactions which are responsible for more than 90% of Food allergy. The US FDA and experts at the Food Allergy Research and Resource Program (FARRP) of the University of Nebraska do not include annatto in the list of major food allergens.
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