AGRI-FOOD TRENDS 2014: Color’s Role in Food, Beverage Acceptance

FORMULATING FOODS

Formulating Foods explores the latest health and nutrition news and research—as well as the latest ingredient and food application innovations—to determine what consumers want (and need) from the food and beverage products they consume, and how industry can make it happen. 

Color’s Role in Food, Beverage Acceptance

Rachel Adams

August 12, 2014 - Blog

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Color not only affects the visual appeal of foods and beverages, but also plays into perceived taste. Getting color right is critical to a product’s success.

The color of a food or beverage product is often a consumer’s first encounter with a product; it’s a visual first impression that can result in a sale (or not) and ultimately influences a consumer’s enjoyment of a product.

What’s more, color influences how consumers perceive taste and quality, and can impact their preferences. In fact, some companies have learned the hard way about the powerful link between a product’s appearance and acceptance. For example, PepsiCo’s short-lived Crystal Pepsi proved that consumers didn’t love clear cola. It failed to meet their expectations for how cola is supposed to look, and how clear soda should taste.

Color additives serve a number of purposes in food and beverages, which include, according to FDA: “to offset color loss due to exposure to light, air, temperature extremes, moisture and storage conditions; to correct natural variations in color; and to provide color to colorless and ‘fun’ foods."

FDA classifies permitted colors as certified or exempt from certification. The former are synthetically produced; the latter are—for the most part—derived from natural sources. Increasingly, consumers are looking for the latter.
In fact, Mintel data shows that from January 2009 to December 2011, the global use of natural colors has been much higher (66 percent of launches) than synthetic/artificial colors (34 percent of launches) in new food and drink products.

When working with natural colors, simple solutions may be the answer, such as mixing different colors together to create a wider variety of hues, or formulating with antioxidants to improve the shelf-life of natural pigments. Other times, more aggressive solutions are needed, as every color and source presents its own set of problems.

For a closer look at food and beverages colors—including natural color options and an overview of caramel colors—download Food Product Design’s free Digital Issue, “The Color Issue."

ARTIFICIAL COLOR UPDATE: How Blue Can You Get, Naturally?

How Blue Can You Get, Naturally?

Lynn Kuntz

July 16, 2014 - Blogs

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In all I things edible, we’re experiencing a strong consumer trend that sees natural as a positive, synthetic as a negative, regardless of whether science actually backs that position. Perhaps nowhere is that as obvious as in food colorants. And while much of the rainbow is covered, blue is still somewhat elusive.

Currently, the FDA has approved two synthetic blue food colors: FD&C Blue No. 1 (Brilliant Blue FCF, E133), creates a brilliant, greenish blue color in solution and stable to acid and heat and  when combined with FD&C Yellow No. 5, gives  bright green shades. FD&C Blue No. 2 (Indigotine, E132) that gives a deep blue color and is acid-stable. Both are approved “in foods generally," per 21 CFR 74 §74.101 and §74.102 of although Blue No. 1 is more widely used. What’s more, Blue No. 1 proving is difficult to match with a natural substitute.

As for colors exempt from certification, widely referred to as “natural colors," FDA has recently approved spirulina extract  (relying on phycocyanins as the principal coloring components) for a wide variety of uses in foods including dairy, baking, candy and beverages (21 CFR 73 §73.530. This joins assorted fruit and vegetable juices that generally depend on anthocyanin for blues that shift to red at low pH. One commercial exception is the juice ofGenipa Americana (huito) fruit which contains genipin, genipin derivatives, or pre-genipin compounds that can be stabilized when combined with protein.

So the search for suitable natural blues for food and beverages continues. And according to a new review, “Nature’s Palette: The Search for Natural Blue Colorants," (J. Agric. Food Chem., 2014, 62 (28), pp 6498–6511, DOI: 10.1021/jf501419q), the answer might lie in microorganisms like bacteria and fungi.

Authors identified seven structural classes of blue pigments compounds and evaluated them for their potential as new color additives. In addition to anthocyanins/flavonoids, they listed quinones and quinoids, linear tetrapyrrole alkaloids, phenazine alkaloids, indole alkaloids (which includes indigo-based dyes like Blue No. 2), pyridine alkaloids (which includes Gardenia blue and huito juice), azulenes, and organometallics and metalloproteins.

But don’t get your petri dishes and hopes up too soon. The authors note that a blue color for food use “must meet targets for hue, color intensity, and solubility. Ideally, it should be stable to heat, acid, light, and oxygen. The pigment should not contribute flavor or interact with other ingredients. Raw materials and processes must be in place for commercial production. Even if all of these criteria are met, the new colorant must be safe and go through the petitioning process for new color additives to get regulatory approval for use." What’s more, the researchers go on to say, compounds from some sources are often “produced as part of a defense mechanism and have biological activities that render them unsuitable for food use." (Translation for those who think being natural makes something safe: Likely toxic or otherwise deleterious to health.)

But there are some promising candidates, so perhaps in the future, food and beverage product designers who need natural alternatives to synthetic colors won’t be singing the blues.
     -Lynn A. Kuntz