The natural way

Johan Cerstiaens, sales director at SVZ, describes how colouring foods and fruit flavours can help confectionery producers boost the shelf appeal of their products.

In recent years, increasingly health conscious consumers have driven the sharp growth of the market for natural products, encouraging manufacturers across the industry to reformulate with minimally-processed, natural ingredients to boost shelf appeal.

This holds true for the confectionery sector, where the biggest shift towards natural ingredients has been registered in the colour segment.

Since the Southampton study, which linked the consumption of some artificial colours with increased levels of hyperactivity in young children, intense artificial colours are gradually being replaced by more natural alternatives. For years, natural colours seemed a popular alternative to artificial colours, but as the clean label trend gained momentum, things got complicated.

Consumer perception of ‘natural’ does not necessarily reflect current labelling regulations and natural colours – usually classified as E numbers – represent a challenge to meet soaring demand for E number free labels. Colouring food, with clean label credentials and strong performance, represents an attractive clean label alternative to natural and artificial colours.

According to the definition included in the European Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 on food additives; natural colours are substances obtained by physical or chemical extraction, which add or restore colour in a food product and include natural constituents of foods and natural sources.

Colouring foods, however, are only made from edible fruits, vegetables and plants processed into concentrates. Classified as food ingredients rather than additives, they do not undergo a selective extraction of pigments and no artificial additives are used in the production process.

Colouring food has proven to be the ideal ingredient for the reformulation of sugar based confectionery, gums and lollipops.

In terms of formulation, colouring food offers a wide range of options to adapt to the organoleptic requirements of different applications. Red beet juice concentrate, for example, can create carmine like colour shades in sugar based products with high pH, while in gums and lollipops colouring food such as black carrot and aronia juice concentrate can provide a bright purple red shade with a clean label positioning.

SVZ’s red beet juice concentrate and powder can give a pink-red colour to confectionery with high pH and is stable in products with a low water activity. Other intense, bright red colours are traced by the orange-red shades of aronia or the pure red colours of black carrot and red elderberry.

Colouring foods offer a price stable alternative to natural colours. With the clean label trend driving new product development, traceability has become one of the key topics in the industry. Vertically integrated fruit and vegetable ingredient suppliers have full control over the supply chain and can guarantee a better price stability and full traceability.

Natural alternatives to artificial flavours are also gradually making their way up in the confectionery market. Red fruit juice concentrates such as strawberry and raspberry, for example, could add a healthy attribute to bubble gums and lollipops.

Plus, as a consumer favourite, red fruit flavours have the potential to help manufacturers boost the shelf appeal of formulations, both old and new.