Food for thought: Are prawns really pink?

In the US they're called "shrimp", in India "prawn" and in the UK they're named according to size. However, no matter what you call them, one fact remains: they only go pink when boiled.

The raw prawn contains a complex mixture of pigments, including carotenoids. These give the flesh its natural "blueish", translucent appearance. Carotenoids are widely present in plants and algae, and are responsible for the orange-yellow colours of many fruit and vegetables.

A few of these carotenoids appear in animal flesh - in prawns, lobster and salmon, for instance - which acquire the pigment via their diet. When the prawn is boiled, the translucent blue carotenoid- protein complex is destroyed, and only the pink carotenoid remains. Although the prawn appears to have changed colour, in fact one colour has been destroyed, allowing another to shine through. Roy Ballam, British Nutrition Foundation