Factors such as pH, baking time, leavening methods, and target flavors can all affect color selection for your baked goods. For cakes, colors with excellent heat stability should be used to sustain extended bake times. These can include Naturbrown® apple, class I caramels, turmeric, Emulsitech® beta-carotene, annatto, and carmine. Cookies and wafers have shorter baking times, opening the door to additional colors including pink and red from beet. Since baked goods are typically neutral in pH, care should be taken when using anthocyanin colors that will shift hue depending on the pH. Purple sweet potato and Amaize® red have proven success in baked applications.

There are four main factors to consider when using natural colors in cereal: heat, base color, use rate, and pH. Because extrusion requires high heat, colors like annatto, Emulsitech® Paprika or Beta-carotene, turmeric, or Naturbrown® ingredients are ideal due to their excellent heat stability, while colors such as beet or anthocyanins may require higher use rates to retain vibrancy. The pH and the base color of the cereal are also important factors. If the base is a neutral pH, anthocyanins such as Amaize® may appear more purple than red. Base material can also impact the final color – Lighter bases could require a lower use rate while darker bases may require a higher use rate of the color to overcome background tones. Applying natural colors through the glaze or frosting process provides an opportunity to add bright colors to cereal that may otherwise fade during the extrusion process. This works well for red, blue, and green hues that are based on beet or spirulina. It also provides a way of attaining natural blues and greens that are permitted in confection-based frostings but not in extruded cereal.

Since dairy products are refrigerated or frozen and are usually protected from light, a wide array of natural colors can be used. The main stability considerations for choosing a natural color in dairy are pH, heat from pasteurization, and added flavors. At a neutral pH, turmeric, Emulsitech® beta-carotene, annatto, and beet work well and provide a variety of color options in the yellow to orange and pink to red range. As cultures are introduced for yogurt-based beverages, such as kefir, the pH is lowered, opening the door to fruit or vegetable-based anthocyanins like Amaize® red, red radish, and purple sweet potato.

Natural colors commonly used in savory applications are turmeric, beta carotene, and paprika, due to their heat stability and versatility. Depending on the matrix, a better color may be achieved by adding color emulsions. Emulsitech® Paprika and Beta-carotene offer vibrant, more evenly dispersed color across multiple phases. Need a simple label brown alternative to caramel color? Naturbrown® ingredients are created from fruit or vegetable juice concentrates and can add golden to deep rich brown color to soup bases. They can be labeled simply as “cooked [fruit/vegetable] juice concentrate”.

A wide array of natural colors is available for vitamin and supplement applications when developing new products or switching from synthetic colors. Hard lozenges and gummy vitamins have high acidity and low moisture, perfect for achieving bright hues. Because they are boiled to high temperatures, the most successful colors will have high heat stability. Amaize® red, annatto, turmeric, and Emulsitech® Beta-carotene or Paprika are excellent choices. For tablets or vitamin mixes, our Vibrant™ powders are designed to evenly disperse in powder mixes before compression, resulting consistent color throughout. If varying particle sizes in the dry mix prevent even distribution of powdered colors, liquid colors can be sprayed onto the dry powder during wet granulation, evenly coating the entire mix.