Why do some shellfish turn red when cooked?
• Certain shellfish, such as lobsters, turn red when cooked because they are red to begin with – we just can’t see it. In life, the red pigmentation in their shell, created by the presence of , is combined with a range of proteins and other pigments to produce the dull camouflage colours that enable the crustacean to blend in with its environment.
When you boil a lobster, or a prawn or shrimp, proteins in the shell denature and unwind, releasing their attached pigments, but while the others break down at high temperatures, astaxanthin…
