In simple terms, caramel color is made by cooking carbohydrates. It is similar to how you would make caramel on a stovetop – you heat sugar until the color changes from white to dark brown. But in order to create large quantities that are stable and suitable for coloring foods and beverages a few more steps are required. Watch the video below or read on for an in-depth look at how the most commonly used color in the world is made.
Need a quick overview? Check out the infographic!
1. Select your sugar
The first step in creating caramel color is to determine a carbohydrate source. There are many types of sugars that can be used to create caramel colors – sucrose, fructose, glucose, invert syrup – all derived from sources such as corn, wheat, sugar beets, and sugar cane. Some types of sugar are chosen because they work best for different classes of caramel, while other types may be chosen to meet certain certification requirements – such as non-GM or organic.
2. Determine your class of caramel
Next, the type of caramel is determined – there are four classes of caramel color, each with their own properties and requirements. Each class requires different reactants, or caramelization aides, such as food-grade acids, alkalis, and salts. Reactants help start the browning process, but also affect the stability, color intensity, and hue of the caramel color.
3. Cook the Sugar
Once the type of sugar and class of caramel is determined, the sugar is loaded into large cookers and a highly specific cooking process begins. For lower viscosity caramels, a system with high heat as well as pressure are used. These caramels are great for usability in manufacturing. For higher viscosity caramels, like class III caramels going into soy sauce, a non-pressurized system is used. While the sugars are heated, the reactants are added into the cookers at strategic times throughout the cook.
For the actual cooking process, caramel colors are created using either one or both of the following types of browning methods: 1) caramelization, or the browning of sugars, and 2) the Maillard reaction, the browning of sugars in the presence of amino acids or other ingredients with amine groups. While this may sound complex, the Maillard reaction is a normal browning process that occurs in the foods we enjoy every day – roasted coffee, seared steaks, and baked bread, for example.
Class I, or plain, caramel colors are created using solely caramelization to produce color. Class II, III, and IV caramel colors, on the other hand, use caramelization as well as Maillard browning reactions to achieve darker colors with increased stability. As the sugars brown, the reactants are cooked off and are not found in the final caramel color product.
After the sugar has finished cooking, the caramelized product is cooled and filtered to ensure product quality and uniformity. From here it can either be dried for use in powder form or moved onto packaging and shipping to customers.
Interested in learning more about caramel colors? Check out these resources:
Related posts
Earthy, Bold, or Pastel: Decoding the language of authentic food colour trends
Consumers are increasingly interested in ‘authentic’ food and beverage experiences—they want food that is as close as possible to its original ingredients or source. This can include minimally processed foods, foods that taste, smell, and look
Colours: See, Feel, Eat!
Take a look at Van Gogh’s Starry Night below. Observe it. Immerse yourself in it. How does it make you feel? Post-impressionist artists, like Van Gogh, Matisse, or Gauguin used colour, not to show nature or reality as it is, but as they felt it. They
Browns in Savoury Applications
Savoury foods seem to be intrinsically linked with the colour brown. Think of any savoury dish, and chances are that it has warm tans, golden hues or deep brown shades. And there is reason for that! In this article we’ll explore this association and the
Coloring Different Plant Bases
A myriad of colors for a bundle of veggie bases Meat-free products come in a variety of formats and use a variety of base ingredients, all with their own specific requirements. Coloring different plant bases poses different challenges based on the chemical
How are Colors Made With Fermentation?
How are Colors Made with Fermentation? Natural colors are made in different ways depending on the source material and desired end format – oil vs. water soluble. These can include juicing, crushing, and selective extraction. But one of the ways we can make
Closing the Gap: Innovations in Class I Caramel Color
Class I Caramel Innovations Caramel colors are used to color just about every kind of food product. And while you might think “brown is brown, why does it matter which class of caramel I use?” the technical properties vary widely between the three main