Annatto
Orange-red seeds of a tropical shrub, used as colour and mild earthy flavour in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Also: achiote, urucum, roucou, Bixa orellana
Annatto is the seed of Bixa orellana, a shrub of the tropical Americas. The seeds are coated in a red-orange pigment, bixin, and are steeped in oil or ground into paste. Indigenous peoples used it for body paint and food long before European contact. Today, achiote paste is a base of Yucatecan dishes such as cochinita pibil, Filipino and Caribbean cooks colour rice and stews with it, and industry uses it to colour Cheddar, Red Leicester and margarine, as E160b. The flavour is faint, slightly peppery and nutty. It is cheaper than saffron and sometimes used in its place, which causes fraud concerns.