Systematic methods for identification of anthocyanin pigments and their quantitative measurement are well-established because of their importance in food color quality and their usefulness in chemotaxonomic investigations. Interest in their accurate analysis has heightened because of their importance in nutraceuticals and functional foods. Efficient extraction can be achieved with cryogenic milling and acetone extraction. Total anthocyanin content is easily measured with the pH differential spectrophotometric method while HPLC with external standard quantitation is an attractive alternative. Additional spectral procedures provide indices for polymeric color and browning. Reverse phase HPLC with uv-visible diode array detection is the method of choice for tracking qualitative changes. Methods for identification include acid hydrolysis and saponification reactions as well as NMR and electro-spray mass spectroscopy (ESMS).