Creating the Ideal Colour for Jelly Sweets
Pastilles, gums, jellies and chews are a significant subcategory in the confectionery sector in Europe. According to Mintel, they accounted for more than 30% of new product launches in this sector in 2016.
Flavour is a major consideration when consumers choose sugar and gum confectionery. The market has a core range of traditional flavours, in particular the fruity ones such as strawberry, orange and lemon. Given the impulse character of the confectionery sector, innovation and new product introductions can always drive additional purchase interest for consumers. In that case, Mintel suggests new sensory experiences should be explored further, so that texture, shape, and colour are a means to create a holistic product experience or accentuate certain elements of a product concept. European consumers are interested in seeing more sophisticated, adult-oriented varieties or imaginative flavour profiles in sugar confectionery:
More exotic flavours can be enhanced by vibrant, exciting and effective colours to best match consumers’ expectations on product performance and level of sophistication. By combining this trend with the continued strive for more natural and clean label products, this is clearly a very dynamic sector of the market.
Creating brilliant natural shades that reflect fruity or exotic flavours is the heart of what we do. To create coloured jelly sweets we need to consider several technical elements, two of which play a crucial role:
Independent of whether we create single or multi-colour solutions, or whether stable formulations are required that can withstand oxidation, we use our extensive experience to help you create just the right colour shade for your jelly sweets.
Formulating with natural colours or colouring foods, their typical characteristics need to be taken into account:
For REDS, Anthocyanins, the red pigments of fruits and vegetables, are the most important group of natural red colouring foods. Depending on the source, composition and their combination with other colouring ingredients, we can achieve a wide range of beautiful red shades. The colour shade, intensity and stability of anthocyanins depends on the pH of the base. If used in an acidic environment, anthocyanins will exhibit generally bright and stable shades, and as a result they are particularly suited to application in jelly sweets. At the same time, there may be visible colour differences if an anthocyanin product is used in a jelly base with pH3 or pH4, and not every anthocyanin product is stable enough in jelly sweets.
For BLUES, the colouring food product Spirulina gives a bright bluish shade and when used in combination with other colouring food preparations is able to create bright GREEN and PURPLE shades. Spirulina has very typical stability characteristics. Heat treatment should be as short as possible, and a jelly gum base with a lower acidity is advantageous. All of those factors and interactions must be understood to achieve the desired results with this colouring food.
For YELLOWS, Curcumin is a very popular natural colour in confectionery and provides a bright yellow shade. Light stability is poor in most jelly applications, so Sensient offers Curcumin colour solutions with improved light stability to enable a bright and stable yellow shade over time.
Whatever your colour needs, we can work with you to create the ideal jelly sweet for your market. Please talk to us and experience our natural colour solutions for your benefit!
For REDS, Anthocyanins, the red pigments of fruits and vegetables, are the most important group of natural red colouring foods. Depending on the source, composition and their combination with other colouring ingredients, we can achieve a wide range of beautiful red shades. The colour shade, intensity and stability of anthocyanins depends on the pH of the base. If used in an acidic environment, anthocyanins will exhibit generally bright and stable shades, and as a result they are particularly suited to application in jelly sweets. At the same time, there may be visible colour differences if an anthocyanin product is used in a jelly base with pH3 or pH4, and not every anthocyanin product is stable enough in jelly sweets.
For BLUES, the colouring food product Spirulina gives a bright bluish shade and when used in combination with other colouring food preparations is able to create bright GREEN and PURPLE shades. Spirulina has very typical stability characteristics. Heat treatment should be as short as possible, and a jelly gum base with a lower acidity is advantageous. All of those factors and interactions must be understood to achieve the desired results with this colouring food.
