Vibrant Red Shades Naturally with Heat-Stabilized Beetroot Colouring
Walking down the grocery aisles, red hues are particularly common among food and beverages. Whether it is a strawberry-flavoured yoghurt or a limited edition pack of red Valentine’s day cookies, red shades can support popular flavour profiles, and enhance the taste and the visual appeal of products.
Research shows that red is an eye-catching colour that can trigger appetite. It is not surprising, therefore, that many brands decide to add or embrace red shades in their products.
One great example is red velvet cake, a classic dessert with an eye-catching look. Traditionally, its red shade formed as a result of a reaction between Anthocyanins in cocoa and vinegar and buttermilk. Nowadays, red food colouring is used to give the cake its unique and dramatic hue. Bold, eye-catching colours like red can draw attention and drive shopper excitement for new products and deliciously different flavours.
Eye-catching red- naturally!
Lead by younger generations, social media has become part of the everyday activities for many people in Europe. Consumers use online platforms to discover new products and talk about and share their eating and drinking experiences. Visual appeal becomes crucial for catching users’ and shoppers’ attention. At the same time, consumers show a growing interest in products that help them to address their well-being, both physical and mental. While people can have different perceptions of what healthy food is, the number and nature of ingredients on food labels have been gaining greater attention.
Even in indulgent categories like cakes, 43-54% of European consumers think that the lack of artificial ingredients is an appealing attribute to make a product healthier. (Mintel)
Luckily, there are natural ways to add or enhance existing red shades in food and beverages.
Red shades naturally: technical considerations
When working with colourings from natural sources, there are some technical considerations to keep in mind. One of the main challenges, in general, is heat. Since many food products, like cakes, biscuits, extruded products, or snacks go through a severe heat step in their production process, developers will need solutions that can withstand the high temperature and still provide a vibrant final shade.
Standard natural red colouring solutions, like those based on athocyanin, for example, will shift from red to purple as a result of the rising pH during the heating step.
Therefore, colourings based on black carrot or elderberry are not the best option when the goal is to keep the bright red shade. Another natural source of red shade is beetroot. Due to their betanin content, beet based solutions can provide a variety of pink to red shades in different applications. However, standard beetroot colourings brown during the baking or heat step of manufacturing due to the Maillard reaction. This issue can also arise during high-shear mixing or extrusion, particularly in cereal or pet food applications. A higher dosage of standard solution might make up for the loss of colour intensity during the heat step. However, this depends on the specific formulation and even if the desired shade is achieved, a high usage rate can affect the texture and cause off-notes.
Conquer heat with stabilized beet-based solutions: UBERBEET
Discover Uberbeet, an innovative platform from Sensient, addressing the need for natural red colouring solutions with high performance and stability in applications that involve a heat-step.
The Uberbeet range of advanced beet-based solutions allows developers to achieve vibrant pink-to-red in baked, fried, panned or extruded goods.
Contrary to other beetroot-based solutions, Uberbeet colourings can withstand harsher processing and heating. These high-performing colouring food and natural colour solutions help brands to stand out, while complying with consumers’ interest in natural and simple ingredients. Depending on the desired final shade, processing parameters and labelling needs, the application team can help you to find the best natural red food colouring solution from the Uberbeet range.
Let’s take a closer look:
Grand Ruby
The newest addition to the Uberbeet platform with extra efficiency
Grand Ruby grants intense colour shades from pink to deep, dark velvet red with minimal dosage, thus reducing potential beet-related flavour impacts. And thanks to its plant origin, Grand Ruby is an optimal replacement for Carmine for Product Developers who need a vegetarian or vegan option.
Magna Ruby
Uberbeet Platform High Concentrated Natural Colour
From vibrant pink to vivid red shades, with Magna Ruby, it is possible to create naturally unique looks without having any impact on the overall sensory experience. Thanks to the advanced technology used by Sensient, the dosage requirements are extremely efficient resulting in bright and vibrant shades. Whether it’s a muffin, pan-coated sweets, or fruit preparations, the eye-catching look is guaranteed!
Leading-edge natural colour technology
Sensient’s proprietary technology enables food developers to achieve vibrant red shades with beetroot-based natural solutions across high-heat environments like bakery, pet food or extruded products. With very high dosage efficiency, colourings made with the unique SupraredTM technology allow developers to achieve eye-catching red looks while minimizing the dosage rate. The low usage rates minimize off-notes and eliminate texture issues.
Uberbeet Colouring Foods
Beetroot-based clean label solutions
Due to special processing conditions, Uberbeet colouring food solutions have an enhanced betanin concentration compared to standard beetroot-based colouring food solutions. Being able to secure the sensitive pigment components in the colouring allows developers to create vivid pink to red shades while also keeping the labelling very simple.
Due to it’s eye-catching shade and it’s natural appeal, beetroot-based solutions are widely used across many different applications. Discover more about Sensient’s extensive portfolio of beet-based colouring solutions and technologies that cater to the growing and diverse needs of product developers. If you need any help with finding the most suitable solutions, feel free to request a consult with our technical experts. Otherwise, you can request a sample right away and leverage Uberbeet in your own application.
