Marrying the increased appeal of clean label with the continued desire for visually attractive products, three experts discuss the rise of natural colouring foods.
It is often said that we eat with our eyes, making colour one of the most important factors for judging the quality of a food product.
Colouring food dates back centuries; a technique used by our ancestors to make morsels more appealing and enhance its perceived quality. For example, the characteristic yellow hue of rice was obtained by adding saffron. By the end of the 19th century, in the USA and Europe, the use of colour additives in the food industry was an ingrained habit with popular products such as ketchup, mustard and sodas featuring artificial colourants like cochineal (E 120), tartrazine (E 102) and caramel IV (E 150d), respectively on their labels. The use of synthetic dyes rapidly increased due to their lower costs, ease of production, and greater colouring strength and stability compared to natural-der
Policy Picks: Regulatory updates from Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and more feature in our round-up foodnavigator-asia.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from foodnavigator-asia.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Colouring foods in India: Industry players optimistic amid clean label trend and rules changes Suppliers offering colouring foods are optimistic of growth in India, in part due to enhanced regulations, but also the broader consumer move towards clean label preferences.
The Indian regulator FSSAI recently introduced that Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Tenth Amendment Regulations (2020), which recognises Colouring Foods as a separate category from synthetic and natural colours, the latter which are considered additives.
The new standard now considers Colouring Foods as a food ingredient, for the primary function of colouring.
Colouring Foods must be made from edible fruits, vegetables, spices or herbs, using water extraction that retain the original characteristics of the source material’s colour, taste and odour.