Cost-Effective Natural Red Coloring for Beverages and More

Developing Cost-Effective Natural Colors

The ideal food color maximizes visual impact in a cost-effective manner. As a vertically-integrated natural color supplier, delivering on that goal can be achieved a few ways:

Sensient's agronomy team is unleashing the power of nature's true color.

A key focus of Sensient’s agronomy program is to improve cost-in-use over time by increasing pigment levels in key color crops like black carrot. “Together, our vertical integration and Seed-to-Shelf initiative enable us to provide leading food and beverage manufacturers with increased cost stability and a secure supply of colors from natural sources,” notes Paul Manning, President and CEO of Sensient Technologies. While site and varietal selection help to improve our color botanical’s yield and crop productivity, our agronomists are additionally naturally breeding varietals for improved crop resistance and increased pigment concentration. For black carrots, this means the darkest color with optimized root volume for anthocyanin pigment content. One example is Sensient’s patent-pending Purple Royale, a highly concentrated black carrot natural red food coloring source—a product resulting from our non-GMO botanical selective seed breeding program.

Why does this matter?

Black Carrot in Beverages

According to Mintel, berry flavors were the second most common in the European carbonated soft drink launches during recent years. Since 2015 the number of carbonated soft drink and flavored water launches containing black carrot grew by more than 50%, most likely due to its vibrant and appealing range of natural red shades. As an anthocyanin, it thrives in low-pH, high-water-activity systems in a wide range of beverages from sports drinks and carbonated soft drinks to Kombuchas (fermented teas) and syrups. Color is an extremely valuable ingredient in beverages, as it enhances the overall flavor perception immediately. According to a Sensient consumer research study, more vibrant and brighter color could increase consumer purchase intent by up to 6%, a potentially substantial financial impact. Black carrots are a naturally versatile and bright option for beverages, as they can provide a range of shade options from bright reds to magentas to fuchsia purples with comparable usage rates.

Sensient’s experts recommend Sensient’s black carrot options because they provide cost-effective natural red shade options across a range of beverages and other applications.

If you have a project that would benefit from a red or purple-red hue, request a sample! Need help getting started or have questions about black carrot’s performance in a particular application? Schedule a consultation with me or one of our other expert color technologists.

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