Are you trying to find alternatives to synthetic colors for your food formulations? When it comes to vibrant hues that satisfy consumers who are more focused on clean label food products than ever before, Mother Nature has some excellent (and intriguing) sources for you to peruse.
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Highlights:
- Natural sources of red include lycopene from tomato; and carmine/cochineal from the aluminum salt of carminic acid.
- Annatto from the achiote tree, paprika from chile peppers and turmeric can create yellow and orange colors.
- Beets can be used to achieve a reddish to purplish hue and is product pH dependent.
- Spirulina is a blue-green algae recently approved by the FDA as a colorant.
- Purple carrots can be used to create a bright purple hue.
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We would like to know what is meant by “stable at higher temperatures” as described for several of the colors. Our food process requires a temperatures between 340 – 360 degrees for some of our product. Few natural colors can handle that range. Natural flavors may also be unstable at these temps. Our Web site, inadequate at this point, shows some of what we do, but does not show the candied flavors we have been working to achieve with natural colors and flavors. Our goal is to create candied popcorn using dye-free methods.
Please! we are tired of articles that don’t spell out WHO is making these coloring products and how we can purchase them!
Hi Sharon,
Thanks for your comment. The Prospector Knowledge Center is a part of Prospector, the ingredient search engine for product developers. Our search engine provides listings from global suppliers of ingredients for food products. If you click on the links in the text included with this infographic, you’ll be taken to search results for products that relate to the various natural food colorings we cover in this graphic. Prospector is a free search engine for food formulators, so if you’re not already a member, I hope you will consider visiting our registration page so that you can fully access ingredient data. Many of the suppliers also offer the ability to request samples from within Prospector.
Kind Regards,
Beth Politsch
Hi Patricia,
I’d consider over 350 degrees Farenheit high temp in this case.
Please keep in mind, though, there will be multiple factors that will impact the stability of most colors:
-Length of heat application on the color is critical and needs to be as short as possible. Add the color as late as possible in the process. Otherwise, you might see browning or fading with extended heat application.
-Protein content could impact stability, and in some applications cause speckling or precipitation, like chocolate or panned confections.
-pH will also impact the rate of change you might experience.
Many suppliers can work with you to create a stable color. I’d suggest you seek a supplier who can offer a blend a color ingredients to provide the best stability for your candied popcorn.
I saw on a label before “Fruit and Vegetable Juice (for color)”.
Does anybody know what they use? The product has a light brown color.