Natural Bright Red

What happens when colors from conventional natural sources don’t satisfy discerning consumers? Chr. Hansen’s decade-long breeding program has resulted in a new and unique sweet potato variety containing pigments that create vibrant alternatives to carmine and synthetic reds. Their selective breeding program using traditional, non-GMO method yielded a plant-based and minimally processed brilliant red color: Chr. Hansen’s new FruitMax. This line of bright-red colors provides new solutions to respond to the consumer demand of natural clean label colors in food applications like bakery, confectionery, beverage, meat analogues, etc.

— Chr. Hansen, www.chr-hansen.com/en

Clean Label Shades of Aqua

GNT Group, supplier of EXBERRY Coloring Foods, predicts “Shades of Aqua” will be the key food and beverage color trend for 2020, with vivid blues and greens set to drive innovation as shoppers seek products that re-connect them with nature. GNT has developed a range of green and blue EXBERRY Coloring Foods with clean-label appeal. They are made from spirulina, an algae that contains phycocyanin, a naturally occurring coloring component. They are the perfect replacement for artificial colorants, including brilliant blue and patent blue, as well as additives like copper chlorophyllin. 

— GNT Group, www.exberry.com

Plant Protein Applications

For plant-based meat analogs, manufacturers are attempting to achieve the appearance of real meat to make the product more appetizing. This includes the appearance of the product on the shelf, as well as the way it looks after cooking. For meat analogs, Kalsec offers a clean label, natural beet powder. While cooking, the product maintains a rich red color on the inside and browns on the outside, offering broad appeal to the consumer. Kalsec scientists create blends of colors using beet, annatto and paprika to modify hues to look more appealing and do this based on customer needs and applications.

— Kalsec Inc., www.kalsec.com

Clean Colors

Growing demand for clean-label can be achieved with California Natural Color’s Clean Colors. Made from fruits and vegetables, our Clean Colors can be purchased in a unique crystal format that does not need to use a carrier – which makes them a perfect solution for your low or zero calorie formulations. They are less dusty compared to spray dried powders and at least five times more concentrated than typical liquid colors. Our crystal colors have superior stability, a long shelf life (five years), and do not require refrigerated shipping or storage. They are also OU Kosher, Halal, non-GMO, organic compliant, and allergen free. 

— California Natural Color, www.californianaturalcolor.com

Better Plant-Based Burgers

Givaudan offers a new line of natural red colors designed specifically for meat substitutes: Vegebrite Veggie Reds. The new Naturex line promises to deliver a better consumer preparation experience, introducing meat-like red color to raw plant-based patties, which then turns brown when cooked. Working in tandem, Givaudan/Naturex scientists and chefs have demonstrated Vegebrite Veggie Reds in a mini-burger concept. Completing the authentic “real meat” experience were Givaudan’s natural beef, umami and soy masking flavors.

— Naturex, part of Givaudan Flavours, www.naturex.com

Red Beet-Based Food Color

To tackle the growing consumer need of clean labels and lead the drive towards more vegetarian and vegan food product options, ROHA has developed Natracol Cerise, a high strength red beet-based food color capable of handling high temperatures in bakery and prepared foods applications. As an excellent replacement for carmine or synthetic pinks and reds, Natracol Cerise answers the consumer need for clean label natural colors while maintaining the required shelf life expected. Natracol Cerise is just one innovation in an impressive portfolio of natural colors and fruit, vegetable juice concentrates from ROHA.

— ROHA USA LLC, www.roha.com

Soy Sauces and More

Soy sauce is one of the oldest condiments and continues to grow in popularity. Its flavoring characteristics make it a versatile base for marinades and cooking sauces. SETHNESS ROQUETTE Class I and Class IV Caramel Colors are used more in Asia for specialty red tone application, while in the US, Class III is primarily used for premium soy sauces along with Class IV for more economical soy sauces.  SETHNESS ROQUETTE offers two varieties or classes of salt-stable caramel colors. Our positively charged, low-sulfite Class III P212 provides excellent reddish-brown tones, and are extremely stable in soy sauces. The SETHNESS ROQUETTE Class IV DSL4 offers dark brown tones that work in applications up to 20% salt. SETHNESS ROQUETTE continues to grow in the sauces and seasonings market with such savory sauces like fish, oyster, mushroom and glazes for chicken and ham. And most recently trending, the use of Korean BBQ and Indonesian Sweet Soy Sauces on non-traditional foods. SETHNESS ROQUETTE has the perfect caramel color, safe, stable, high quality and highly concentrated for whatever you are creating.

— Sethness Roquette, www.sethness.com/sauces-seasonings/

Natural Colors Beyond Beef

ColorMaker leads the way with creative custom natural color blends designed to enhance the visual appeal of meat-substitute products. Our custom natural color blends closely mimic the subtle yellow colors of chicken meat, the off-white colors of fish filets, the orange colors of salmon patties, and the BBQ red colors of pork ribs. Our custom natural color blends can be designed to hold their color when cooked or turn brown when cooked.  Our custom natural color blends can be incorporated into the matrix of the plant-based proteins or into a bread coating.

— colorMaker Inc., www.colormaker.com

Organic Purple

Food Ingredient Solutions is pleased to introduce organic purple sweet potato color. Purple sweet potato color is already widely used to provide stable fuschia or pink to red shades in still and carbonated beverages and grape tones in apple based drinks. The new purple sweet potato color is available in both liquid and powder forms and is certified by Oregon Tilth. FIS also offers organic and organic compliant black carrot, red beet, carrot, elderberry turmeric, caramel, annatto, beta-carotene and color blends, a number of which are suitable for beverage applications.

— Food Ingredient Solutions LLC, www.foodcolor.com

Stable Reds for Plant-based Meat

Lycored has completed a delicatessen style ham meat alternative stability study on its color portfolio. Comparing Lycored’s natural color range with other colorants used in deli-ham applications—such as iron oxide and beet—the study looked at processing conditions, storage, exposure to light, freezing, customer storage after opening, and extended shelf life. All of Lycored’s colors proved more stable than other alternatives with minimal color changes visible after a three-month period. To assist customers with finding the right shade for a plant-based application, Lycored also has added three new plant-based categories to its HueFinder color matching tool, which accelerates the ingredient selection process by offering easy access to application-specific insights to product developers. The new categories cover plant-based alternatives to deli-ham, sausages or frankfurters and tuna or chicken chunks. To find out more visit: https://www.lycored.com/huefinder. 

— Lycored, www.lycored.com/harvesting-possibilities