A Closer Look at Oranges from Botanical Sources
Orange is an enthusiastic, uplifting, high-energy colour, and it can bring to life flavours from savoury to sweet. Whether you’re working on a spicy snack seasoning, a sweet citrus beverage, or even a nutrient-dense pet kibble, chances are you’re looking for an orange hue to bring it to life. While bold oranges can be achieved using blends of natural reds and yellows, often our customers are seeking the most efficient colour solution for a specific project. Check out these orange solutions based on single botanical components, along with tips and tricks for using each one efficiently:
Annatto is a versatile colour solution within the orange family, with good heat and light stability. Sensient offers this colourant as both a water- and oil-soluble solution, making it a popular choice across applications. We also have an acid-proof option, which is popular in lower pH systems like beverages. Sensient’s focus on robust supply chain security for this botanical and others ensures that we are involved from seed to shelf, optimising cost for our customers each step of the way.
Paprika is a heat-stable solution well-recognised by consumers on an ingredient list. Naturally oil-soluble, it thrives in low-water applications. The powder version also performs extremely well in dry seasoning applications. We also know how important food safety is to our customers. Our Certasure™ program protects our paprika solutions from risks like pesticides so that brands can be confident in the food safety standards of their ingredients.
Pure-S™ Paprika is a gentle purification technology that reduces or eliminates flavour off-notes in applications like beverages, frozen novelties, and dairy products. As a spice, paprika is both boldly coloured and boldly flavoured in its natural state, hence, Pure-S™ technology is used to ensure that developers can leverage the rich orange hues to replace Yellow 6 without a flavour impact.
Beta-carotene Beta-carotene solutions can be both natural and nature-identical, offering a wide range of orange hues to developers across applications. These colours are preferred for their excellent stability and wide colour variety, from warm peachy oranges to yellow-orange shades. Beta-carotenes are also available in the red and yellow family for even more options.
Sensient’s Advanced Emulsion Technology (AET™) offers developers both clear and cloudy beta-carotene-based solutions for orange hues with reduced cap staining and ringing. Because beta-carotenes are naturally oil-soluble, an emulsion is necessary to use this versatile colour source in water-based applications. They typically work well in applications like beverages, confections, dairy products, and pet food.
Carrot offers an easily recognisable clean-label solution for orange hues that will appeal to natural-ingredient-seeking consumers. For development of cloudy beverages, carrot juice is a smart choice. Its broad stability makes it popular across all applications.
Lycopene has excellent heat, water, acid, and light stability, making it a flexible choice for orange shades across applications. While it presents in the red and pink family for beverage and dairy applications, this colourant offers orange hues across baking, processed, confectionery, and pet products.
Microfine™ is an advanced technology that offers formulators both powder and dispersion solutions for orange hues, regardless of the botanical source’s inherent solubility. A favourite for those working with compound coatings, yogurt coatings, seasonings, or powdered beverages, it delivers bright, intense shades across the rainbow—including bold oranges—with plating-grade characteristics as well as improved incorporation in fat-based systems.
Want to know what applications best suit each of these solutions? Reach out to our team of colour experts to get started.
