Cookbook | Recipes | Ingredients | Spices and herbs

Annatto seeds

Annatto, also onoto, achiote, is a spice made of the red pulp surrounding the seeds of the achiote tree in South America.

Annatto is commonly used as a food colouring agent, and has the food additive number E160b. It gives cheeses such as Cheddar and Red Leicester their colour, and helps butter and margarine appear the colour that customers expect it to be.

The traditional Venezuelan dishes hallaca and perico use annatto in their preparation.