Hue: Our Expertise
Natural colorings are often used worldwide to improve the visual appeal of food and beverage products. Here at DDW, our expertise is providing you with a natural color hue for your food or beverage application.
As food industry expert Kantha Shelke says: “We eat with our eyes before we ever smell or taste.”
This is why we enjoy helping our customers choose the right hue for each application to align new product development with current and forecasted consumer preferences. Let us help you find and develop the perfect color using non-synthetic sources. We understand the value of developing the right natural color for a food or beverage processor’s specific needs.
Our team of color experts are happy to assist you throughout this process, and you can even contact us for a personalized product recommendation for your food or beverage application.
“We eat with our eyes first…”
Color plays a key role in food choice by influencing taste thresholds, sweetness perception, food preference, pleasantness, and acceptability.
- Fergus Clydesdale, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts
Source Comparisons:
View Interactive Source Comparison
Critical Hue Determinate:
| Caramel | Class (I, II, III, IV) |
| Annatto Extract | Concentration |
| Beet Juice | Concentration |
| [beta]-Carotene from natural sources | Concentration |
| [beta]-Carotene nature-identical | Concentration |
| Chlorophyllins, Copper Complexes of | Concentration |
| Cochineal Extract; Carmine | Concentration |
| Lutein | Concentration |
| Paprika Extract | Concentration |
| Saffron | Concentration |
| Lycopene; Tomato | Negligible |
| Riboflavin | Negligible |
| Titanium dioxide5 | Negligible |
| Turmeric (Curcumin) | Negligible |
| Aronia (Chokeberry) Juice | pH |
| Black Currant Juice | pH |
| Cabbage Juice, Red | pH |
| Carrot Juice, Purple / Black | pH |
| Elderberry Juice | pH |
| Grape Juice; Grape Skin | pH |
| Potato Juice, Purple Sweet | pH |
| Radish Juice, Red | pH |
Building Blocks for Color Solutions
Choose a Hue
Find the color you’ve been looking for. To get started, choose your desired hue (or, if you prefer to select an application, click here).
Emerging Colors:
We were honored to be featured by IFT during their 2012 IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo Trend Tour in the category of Emerging Flavors and Colors.
The two colors chosen for the Trend Tour were new contemporary fruit and vegetable hues:
As Bob Swientek discusses in this video by IFT, the color of foods and beverages can help overcome functionality challenges and make healthy products visually appealing to consumers. At DDW, our talented team of innovation scientists have created a forecast color within the orange family of hues. Based upon the trends we’ve seen in the food and beverage industry this year, our new “Pumpkin Bisque” natural color is more of a traditional orange hue. Another new color is Cranberry Nectar, which is the result of current and forecasted consumer color trends we are seeing in the range of red hues.
“We are seeing red hues moving in a cooler direction,” says DDW’s Campbell Barnum. Barnum adds: “In natural color, fruit juice for color and vegetable juice for color are both approved colorings.”
You can request a sample of Pumpkin Bisque, Cranberry Nectar, or any of our other colors by clicking here.
Color and the Light Spectrum
Here is an exclusive educational video DDW created about color and the light spectrum in the range of yellow to orange hues. We also discuss how natural colors can be used to replace synthetic colors for yellow to orange hues in consumer food and beverage products around the world: All hues have natural variations.
Working with natural colors doesn’t have to be complicated. The DDW Innovation Team works to reduce complications with processing times, color variations, and usage levels.
Contact our color experts for assistance finding the right color for your application!