When the pH was below 7.0, L* increased and a* decreased as pH increased; however, L* decreased as the pH increased from 7.0 to 10.0 (Fig. 2). These results are consistent with the variations in visual color of the samples at different pH ranges (Table 1). L* indicates the brightness or darkness of foods. As the red color fades, the darkness of SJ reduces and L* increases accordingly. Higher L* means brighter or whiter color. However, for the red SJ, both the increasing and decreasing in L* possibly imply color deterioration, either browning or fading. a* decreased to a certain level when the pH increased to 6.0 and did not further reduce at higher pH values. This result implies that a* can more reliably reveal SJ color than L*.