Switching to Natural Colors in Confections

When you think of confections, you most likely imagine vibrant, colourful shades. To achieve those vivid hues, confections are typically coloured with synthetics, but as consumers lean more toward ‘clean label’ options, demand for switching to natural colours in confections is skyrocketing.

As you start the replacement process, you may hear things like: ‘natural colours aren’t as vibrant as synthetics’ or ‘natural colours aren’t as stable as synthetics’, but don’t fear! Natural colorus can successfully replace synthetic colours in confections. We’ll share some tips to ensure success and bust a few common myths in the article below:

While natural colours may require higher usage rates or care during manufacturing, they can achieve some beautifully bright shades. One reason synthetic colours appear so vibrant is fluorescence. Fluorescent substances, such as Tartrazine, or Yellow #5, absorb radiation at the UV range and reflect it back, sometimes as visible light. Luckily, some natural colours share this fluorescent characteristic. Curcumin, for example, absorbs UV light and blue light and emits back yellow light which is why it appears like it’s glowing under a black light! Natural colours can provide that dramatic, vibrant glowing look, so the fun doesn’t have to be compromised when switching to a natural label.

You may also need to adjust when or how you add a natural colour to get the brightest shades. For example, vibrancy can be impacted by the base colour of the confection – turmeric will appear bright yellow in translucent confections like gummies and hard candies, but if it’s used on panned candies, you’ll need to add a white base coating to the chocolate first to give a more reflective background and minimize visual darkness. Otherwise, the colour will appear darker and muted like in the image below.

While synthetics are extremely stable (which is often why companies use them), natural colours can compete – especially in confections! Many confections are in wrappers or opaque envelopes which helps to prevent photodegradation and gummies and hard candies have low water activity, which helps limit colour fade. Gummies are also acidified which is ideal for natural colours like anthocyanins and carminic acid.

So, the main area of concern is when using natural colours that have lower stability to heat. Some colours are very stable to heat, like those in the image below. But with a slight adjustment in processing colours with lower heat stability, like spirulina and beet, can still be used. In these cases, it is often best to add colours as the sugar mixture is cooling, rather than heating. This will help to prevent any colour fade from heat exposure.

It’s also important to use the best natural color for your specific product when switching to natural colors in confections. This ensures the best stability throughout your product’s shelf life. For example, anthocyanins would provide a stable and bright red in acidified gummies but would turn purple or start to fade in confections with a higher pH such as marshmallows.

If you’ve historically used synthetic colours and don’t want your end consumer to be surprised by colour changes, don’t worry! Natural colours can closely match synthetics and we are here to help with the process.

To get a good colour match, we start by quantifying the colour using a colorimeter, which measures the transmittance or reflectance of light through a sample and provides measurements for different aspects of colour such as: hue, saturation, and lightness/darkness. We then make up several natural blends and use visual observations to select the ones that appear to be a close match in the application and measure again using the Colorimeter.

In the photo below, you can see a chocolate confection panned with a synthetic color versus our natural match. The colorimeter measurements tell us the hue (h) values are close which means the candies are perceived as the same color. The lightness and chroma values are also close which indicates that the samples are very similar in terms of brightness and saturation – a close color match!

By looking at these measurements we can understand the breakdown of the colour and decide which components may need to be adjusted to get a closer match – i.e. more or less red. Check out our article on colour matching for a more in-depth look at the process!

While these are just the basics for switching to natural colours in confections, all applications are different. Check out our webinar for a more in-depth look at how to replace natural colours in confections. Ready to get started? Request a sample kit or contact us if you have questions on your project.