Recent advances in stability improvement of anthocyanins by efficient methods and its application in food intelligent packaging: A review

Anthocyanins are natural pigments that produce health benefits and are frequently used in food processing. However, the instability of anthocyanins causes them to degrade and fade, losing most of their functionality. Many efficient methods have been used to improve the stability of anthocyanins. This paper reviews the methods used to enhance the stability of anthocyanins in recent years. Improvement of stability by physical methods, such as copigmentation, interaction with organic macromolecules. Among them, copigmentation is subdivided into intramolecular and intermolecular copigmentation, self-association, metal complexation and copigmentation with other co-pigments. Interaction occurs mainly between anthocyanins and proteins and polysaccharides. Improvement of stability by chemical methods, like encapsulation, acylation, glycosylation, methoxylation. Encapsulation is classified into microencapsulation, nanoencapsulation and liposomes. There is also the biological approach of using biosynthetic modifications to improve stability. The application of anthocyanins in intelligent packaging of food products is summarized, and the challenges and prospects for their development in food applications are presented to promote further research on anthocyanins.