ABSTRACT
The food manufacturing industry has increasingly focused in the development of wholesome and safer products, including certified labeled "super foods," "healthy foods" and "functional foods," which are currently under great demand worldwide. Plant pigments and vitamins are amidst the most common additives incorporated to foodstuff, not only for improving their nutritional status but also for coloration, preservation, and even therapeutic purposes. The recovery of pigments from agro industrial wastes using green emerging approaches is a current trend and clearly the best alternative to ensure their sustainable obtainment and make these ingredients more popular, although still full of challenging aspects. Stability and bioavailability limitations of these active molecules in food matrices have been increasingly studied, and a number of methods have been proposed to minimize these issues, among which the incorporation of a co-pigment, exclusion of O2 during processing and storage, and above all, microencapsulation and nanoencapsulation techniques. The most recent advances and challenges in the application of natural pigments and vitamins in functional foods, considering only reports of the last 5 years, were the focus of this chapter.