Color Solutions for Plant-Based Meat Alternatives

While color suppliers have long been striving toward increasingly stable natural color solutions, in the case of plant-based proteins a color shift under heat processing can be a good thing, showing a change from a “raw” visual to a “cooked” one. Sensient’s color experts work every day to leverage their deep knowledge of color sources like beet to meet specific formulation needs.

Labeling is also a key consideration for plant-based products. If a developer is seeking to claim “organic” or “made in USA”, it’s important for ingredient suppliers like Sensient to know at the beginning of the development process so we can provide solutions that fit those restrictions.

The target shade of a product is critical to understand, and efficient formulation depends on understanding how to work with the base shade of the product to achieve a specific visual. The difference between a medium burger and a well-done plant-based burger could be wholly different color solutions.