Few years ago, European Union declared the approval of fungal carotenoid as food colorant while strengthening the prospect of using fungi as a natural source of food-grade pigments.
Interestingly, pigment producing fungi is quite common in marine environment and a number of pigment biosynthesizing fungal strains with unique characteristics have been discovered.
Despite the diversity and characteristics of pigment producing marine fungal strains, production optimization and toxicological investigations have remained largely to be explored.
Table 5 summarizes pigment producing microorganisms that have been isolated from marine sources and potential health benefits of those pigments.