All-Natural Shades

The Southampton study continues to affect industry attitudes towards synthetic colors in the last two years. The study concluded that certain mixes of artificial food colors can aggravate hyperactivity in children. It received much media coverage and caused a stir among consumers and food manufacturers globally.

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the European Parliament said foods containing colors listed in the Southampton study (Southampton colors) must be labeled with the relevant E number and with the warning label: “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children”. The UK ministers also agreed to an FSA proposal on voluntary phasing out of the Southampton food colors by the end of 2009.

The biggest potential is in the beverage and confectionery sectors where the current global natural color penetration is 10%. It is expected to grow to 25% within four years.

Aftermath of Southampton study

The study has prompted manufacturers to reformulate their products to incorporate natural colors and retailers are phasing out foods containing the undesirable colors. While many companies have been working for years to replace artificial colors with natural ones in their products, the study has significantly accelerated the process.

The Europeans were the early adopters of natural colors but recently, a growing number of consumers in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA) and South America, where synthetic colors hold a fairly strong position, have been demanding naturally-colored foods. Manufacturers servicing these regions reported strong sales for 2008, indicating the global, “natural” trend.

• Australia

In 2008, an Australian campaign called ‘Kids First’ — backed by groups Additive Alert, Food Intolerance Network, and Additive Education — called on the Australian government to ban the Southampton Six colors. However, the Food Standards Australia New Zealand assured the public that “there is no public health and safety risk from the consumption of foods containing added colors as part of a balanced healthy diet”.

Nonetheless, parents continued to demand the government to ban the use of artificial coloring in children’s foods and beverages. A food coloring poll at MotherInc.com.au in February and March this year revealed that parents are concerned about the amount of artificial food colorings their children consume.

Over 1000 parents completed the poll and 95% agreed to government legislation phasing out the use of artificial food coloring. The poll found that 60% of the parents reported significant side effects such as impatience, irritability, loss of concentration, and hyperactivity in their children who consumed food with artificial colorings.

The poll, which generated national media stories, also revealed that 80% of respondents would be happy to pay more for products that do not contain artificial food colorings.

When annatto (in picture) binds to the protein in cheese, the color is not washed away with the whey, making it an ideal colorant for cheese.

• ALDI breaks free from Southampton six colors

Claiming to be an Australian first, ALDI recently announced that it is reformulating all its exclusive branded food items to remove the Southampton Six food colors from products in its 205 Australian stores by the end of 2009.

Says the company's Southampton Study Group MD Michael Kloeters: “We chose not to wait for it to be legislated in Australia as we believe the findings are enough to demonstrate this is the right thing to do. We are reformulating all ALDI foods containing the six food colors and we are either replacing with natural alternatives, or not adding anything at all.”

• Vietnam

The demand for natural colors is also felt in Vietnam; based on results from a recent Nielsen Company study of 750 locals in the country. Participants in the survey, conducted earlier this year, perceived natural food colorings positively with 86% preferring natural rather than artificial colors. They say consuming foods using natural colors are beneficial to their health.

Achieving a sufficiently bright and stable color with natural sources can be technically challenging. The selection of raw materials, their compositions and natural stabilizing compounds affect the success rate of using natural colors in foods and beverages.

Working with natural colors

Consumers now seem to have a better understanding of natural and artifi cial colors. They have a growing interest in natural foods and are becoming more label savvy, resulting to food manufacturers seeing a need to re-formulate their products with natural, raw ingredients.

A natural alternative to products containing synthetic colors is easily available, as natural colors are frequently used to obtain a shade where other ingredients could not.

Fruit and vegetable-based colorings are commonly used to provide a product with a natural, realistic color, as opposed to gaudy shades obtained using synthetic colors. Consumers who desire natural colors in food products are responding positively to manufacturers who might not produce exact color matches between synthetic and natural colors.

Achieving a sufficiently bright and stable color with natural sources can be technically challenging. The selection of raw materials, their compositions and natural stabilizing compounds affect the success rate of using natural colors in foods and beverages.

Natural colors are generally more sensitive to high concentrations of vitamins, minerals, and active compounds such as quinine and caffeine. The chemical reactivity or the lipophilic nature of natural pigments in beverages needs a specific formulation based on emulsion, encapsulation, as well as resistance to oxidation, fading and browning.

With technological advancement, manufacturers will be able to produce natural colors that are stable in varying conditions of temperature, light and pH, making it easier for producers to successfully replace synthetic colors with natural ones without compromising on product appeal.

• Supply from nature

Raw material selection is important to achieving stability in natural colors. The region, climate, environment and cultivar of raw ingredients have an impact on the colors’ shade, strength and stability when used in product formulation.

Techniques such as emulsification or encapsulation can be used to enhance or extend the natural color stability and leverage on the physical interactions of the color with other colors or some ingredients in the finished product. In the case of annatto binding to the protein in cheese, the color is not washed away with the whey. This makes annatto an ideal colorant, natural or synthetic, for cheese, as well as to provide a stable finished product with a desirable color.

As suppliers of natural colors are dependent on the access to the raw materials, factors such as the weather, the quality of the harvest, the cost of the raw materials and transport, and in some regions in the world, the political instability challenge the constant supply of raw materials. Sourcing raw materials from different locations globally would therefore limit the risk of supply issues.

Fruit and vegetable-based colorings are commonly used to provide a product with a natural, realistic color, as opposed to gaudy shades obtained using synthetic colors.

Outlook

The trend of marketing natural products will continue, as New Nutrition Business lists ‘naturally healthy’ as one of 10 key trends in food, nutrition and health this year. Mintel says about 23% of all new products launched globally in 2008 made natural claims, indicating that this trend is hardly slowing down.

According to Leatherhead Food International (LFI), natural colors make up 31% of the $1.15 billion international colorings market in 2007, compared with 40% for synthetics. LFI predicts that “it is highly possible that natural colors will push synthetics into second position”.

Growing at 4-5% annually, Chr. Hansen expects that the natural market could be expanded from 450 million euros ($646.11 million) to approximately 630 million euros in the next four years. The biggest potential is in the beverage and confectionery sectors where the current global natural color penetration is 10%. It is expected to grow to 25% within four years.

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The truth about colors

Natural colors are pigment extracts from a wide range of naturally occurring raw foods such as fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, seeds and flowers. Grapes, carrots, beetroot, annatto seeds, turmeric root, spinach and palm fruits are commonly used to produce natural colors.

Synthetic colors are chemically synthesized from raw materials, many of which are derived from petroleum. They are divided into different chemical classifications such as azo dyes, which are comprised of colors like FD&C Red 40 (Allura Red) and FD&C Yellow 5 (Tartrazine).

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