INTRODUCTION
Due to the danger of synthetic food dyes and strict requirements of law in some countries on the content of these substances in food, recently, attention and
demand in natural dyes have rapidly increased. Carotenoids (this class includes close to 30 compounds) are one of the most important natural food dyes. Being provitamins and antioxidants, they are an integral part of diet. Theoretically, βcarotene has a 100% provitamin activity (one carotenoid molecule transforms to one vitamin A molecule upon metabolism), while α and γcarotenes exhibit 50% provitamin activity. The antioxidant activity of carotenoids is related to the decrease in the risk of cancer diseases [1, 2]. The principal sources of carotenoids are fruits and vegetables. Carrots hold a unique position representing the source of almost exclusively α, β, and γcarotene. Accord ing to the data of Chen et al. [3], βcarotene constitutes the main part of carrot carotenoids (60–80%), the fraction of αcarotene is 10–40%, and the fraction
of lutein does not exceed 1–5%.