New natural color technology offers increased stability
The company said its new Fusion Precise Natural Color Systems combine its color science and formulation expertise to capture an “unprecedented” spectrum of custom developed, preservative free and GMO free natural colors.
Sensient boasts that the technology delivers consistency and stability in color and eliminates unwanted odors and off-flavors. These are attributes difficult to achieve with traditional natural colors due to the inherent inconsistency and composition of many natural ingredients.
It also claims that the sustainability of its colors in applications is between three and 20 times over industry averages, depending upon the shade. For example Fusion Red tests prove that its color stability over typical natural red colors, as found in the current marketplace, is three-fold.
Possible applications for its range of colors include beverages, fruit fillings, flavors, confections, frozen novelties, dairy products.
A spokesperson for Sensient Food Colors said: “Color is a driving factor in consumer choice for foods and beverages, and natural color usage currently offers fewer shade and vibrancy options to product developers and brand managers.
“Fusion opens up new opportunities and solutions to the marketplace, delivering clean, consumer-friendly label declarations coupled with vibrant and consistent natural color options that food and beverage processors have been seeking.”
Synthetic colors
There is a trend among both consumers and manufacturers for natural alternatives to synthetic food colors, partly due to health concerns and a growing desire for "natural" products.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has formally petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to require a warning label on foods that contain any of eight suspect artificial dyes linked to increased hyperactivity in children. The consumer activist group is also considering a request for an outright ban on the colors.
This is in response to a study from researchers at the University of Southampton in the UK, published in the prestigious journal The Lancet, which concluded that cocktails of a number of different artificial food colors and the preservative sodium benzoate exacerbate hyperactive behavior in children at least up to middle childhood.
Sensient Food Colors is a unit of Sensient Technologies Corporation, a global manufacturer and marketer of colors, flavors and fragrances.
