Trends in Annatto Agroindustry: Bixin Processing Technologies and Market

This paper presents an overview of the annatto agro industry by reviewing publications related to colorant technology production, the market, and the worldwide intellectual property protection. The aim was to identify solutions, technological advances and trends by observing the research and development activities and publication of patents in this area. In the last decade, the demand of annatto use in the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries increased. Advances in technology are observed throughout the production chain, such as improvements in raw material production, seed characteristics, colorant manufacturing processes and colorant formulations with the extract; socioeconomic benefits for the production regions are also observed.