Colour plays an important role in how consumers perceive beverages. It can influence expectations around flavour, quality and freshness before the first sip. As demand for natural ingredients continues to grow, beverage manufacturers are increasingly exploring natural food colouring solutions. However, achieving a vibrant, consistent and stable colour throughout a product’s shelf life can be challenging.
Why is colour important in beverages?
Colour is one of the first things consumers notice when choosing a beverage and can play an important role in overall product appeal. An eye-catching colour can attract attention, while it can also influence perception of characteristics such as sweetness, flavour intensity and acceptability.
For beverage manufacturers, selecting the right colour therefore involves more than achieving an attractive shade. The colour also needs to perform consistently within the formulation and throughout the product’s intended shelf life.
Why is colour stability challenging in beverages?
Natural food colouring can behave differently depending on the beverage formulation and processing conditions. Factors such as pH, temperature, light, oxygen and interactions with other ingredients can all influence colour stability. Anthocyanins, for example, are particularly sensitive to pH and can change colour or degrade as conditions change. Heat and light exposure can also accelerate pigment degradation.
For manufacturers, this means that selecting a food colouring based solely on its initial appearance may not be enough. A colour that looks perfect immediately after production may not deliver the same performance after pasteurisation, processing or extended storage.
Packaging and storage conditions can also contribute to colour changes. Light, temperature fluctuations and oxygen exposure can affect certain natural pigments, making shelf-life testing an important part of beverage development.
Choosing the right food colouring for the application
The solution is not simply to find the strongest colour. Manufacturers need to consider the complete beverage system, including its pH, processing conditions, ingredients, packaging and expected shelf life.
Different natural colour sources and technologies can provide different levels of stability and performance. For example, Plant-Ex offers natural colours and colouring foodstuffs sourced from edible materials, alongside technologies including beverage-stable emulsions, milled colours and bespoke spray-dried powders. These formats can help manufacturers select a solution that is appropriate for their specific product and production process.
A more tailored approach to food colouring
For beverage manufacturers, successful natural food colouring is about finding the right balance between colour, stability, processing requirements and the finished product’s characteristics.
By combining suitable colour technologies with application expertise, testing and close collaboration, manufacturers can address stability challenges earlier and develop beverages with a consistent appearance throughout their intended shelf life.
Working closely with manufacturers to solve colour challenges
Developing a stable beverage colour often requires more than supplying an ingredient. Close technical collaboration between the colour supplier and manufacturer can help identify potential challenges earlier in the development process.
Plant-Ex has a team of natural colour specialists who have developed specific colours to tackle the main challenges of beverage applications, including pH stability, shelf life and light stability, and heat and processing stability. The team has strong experience working with both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, as well as hot beverages and sports beverages.
We work closely with customers to develop tailored colour solutions, including colour blending, colour matching, shelf-life testing and application support. Our NPD team can test colour stability against challenges such as heat application and photo-oxidation, helping manufacturers identify the most suitable solution for their application.
Get in touch with the Plant-Ex team to discuss your application and requirements.
Source:
Factors affecting the stability of anthocyanins and strategies for improving their stability – PMC
Sources and relative stabilities of acylated and nonacylated anthocyanins in beverage systems – PMC