A Broad Palette

By Heather Landi

Excerpt from July 2011 Beverage World magazine

Second to packaging, the color of a beverage is the first thing consumers notice when eyeing drink options sitting on a store shelf. Whether the vibrant yellow hue of a lemonade or the dark brown of a cola, color can add to a beverage’s visual appeal.

But developing the exact right shade can be tricky as the colors need to work with all of the other ingredients and remain stable in the finished product. Ingredient suppliers continue to innovate with colors to give beverage developers a larger palette to work with.

Caramel color continues to be the most widely consumed food coloring ingredient in the world, as it’s primarily used in soft drinks. As the demand for organic ingredients grows, D. D. Williamson last year developed an acid-proof, certified organic caramel color for the North American market. The organic caramel color provides stability below pH 2.5.

“It provides a new option as developers of organic flavors, beverages and foods can now use an acid-stable caramel color in formulations. It is minimally processed and demonstrates superior stability in acid compared to other certified organic caramel colors,” says Greg Kreder, product development scientist at D. D. Williamson.

 Increased Demand for Natural Colors 

Demand for natural colors is currently outpacing growth for synthetic colors, prompted in large part by consumers’ increasing interest in all-natural ingredients and “clean” labels. According to Leatherhead International, the world market for natural colors increased by almost 35 percent between 2005 and 2009…

…The European Union enforced stricter labeling  laws for synthetic colors on the heels of a study that found that certain synthetic colors could aggravate hyperactivity in children. In March, in the United States, the FDA Food Advisory Committee looked into the issue of artificial colors, namely the FD&C colors, such as FD&C Red #40 and FD&C Yellow #5, and concluded that research did not show a link between hyperactivity in children and consumption of synthetic colors, but also agreed further research needed to be done.

There are a number of challenges that beverage developers often encounter when using natural colors, such as color degradation due to heat and light, oxidation, stability and shelf life. According to Campbell Barnum, vice president of marketing, D. D. Williamson, while synthetic colors are generally more stable in formulation and more economical than non-synthetic, this gap has narrowed in recent years thanks to blend technology and the movement toward making more water-dispersible natural colors available.

The most common types of natural colors used in beverages are extracted from fruits and vegetables and include anthocyanins, carotenoids, including beta carotene, cochineal and tumeric…