The colours of autumn in drinks

NOT all manufacturers of food and beverages would readily apply natural colours to their products. In fact, most of them are used to working with synthetics due to the limited stability of naturals and the costly requirements that go with it like investing in bottles with UV filter to keep colours from fading. Natural colours also require different processing times, and tend to be far from being user-friendly when compared to synthetics. But new natural hues offered by Chr Hansen and D.D Williamson may well be the answer beverage suppliers are looking for.

Natural colours are derived from anthocyanins, which offer a wide spectrum of orange-red to violet shades, but it is a challenge to maintain their stability especially in beverage matrixes with high water activity. Anthocyanins are pigments extracted from vegetable sources such as grape skin and black carrot, and these are partly the colours that appear in leaves in the fall.

 Across the international F&B industry, beverage producers are struggling with the problem of fading natural colours in their products. Many existing colourings found in drinks tend to change, and as a result, many beverages start to lose their visual appeal whilst they are for sale in the supermarket, especially if they are exposed to bright light whilst on display.

“This is a burning issue for beverage producers as poorly looking products may eventually jeopardise their brand,” says Chr. Hansen’s Ellen Hemme, industry product manager at the company’s Natural Colours Division. “In order to avoid this risk producers have had to accept shortened shelf-life of their beverages, high scrapping rates — or the use of costly bottles with an integrated UV filter that can prevent or defer the fading process. Additionally, the fading issue has been causing hesitation amongst beverage producers who wish to switch from synthetic to natural colours but who fear the fading issue.” In response to these limitations, the company released a spectrum of reds, which Ms Hemme calls aNike Jordan Super Fly 5