Beet Root

Beta vulgaris

Although the beet has been in cultivation for thousands of years, what we recognize as the common garden beet has only been around for the last few hundred years. The vegetable is a hybrid of the sea beet (B. maritime), which grows along the coastal regions of Europe, Asia and North Africa. The leafy above-ground components of the plant are also harvested and sold as the vegetable and bitter salad green known as Swiss chard.

In the food industry, beet root is known as food additive E162, or betanin, and is used to lend color to vegetable juices, powdered soft drink mixes, pork products, ice cream, candies, fruit fillings, jarred spaghetti sauce, salad dressings and some frozen foods. The pigments in beet root responsible for color include the plant’s primary constituent, betaine (aka betanin and betalain), as well as indicaxanthin, vulgaxanthin, isobetanin, probetanin and neobetanin. Betalain pigments are also found in some cacti, fungi and in the flower petals of plants that produce blooms in red or violet shades.