Applications like seasonings, sauces, dressings, and other condiments, are key to creating culinary experiences both at home and in restaurants. Adding natural colours to these applications can enhance their look and support the new flavor and food experiences customers crave. However, there are some important factors to consider when selecting the best natural colour for these savory seasonings and sauces. To help make your decision easier, we’ve broken down the top 5 considerations for colouring culinary sauces, seasonings, and condiments. 

One of the first things to consider when colouring savoury applications is how the base colour of a sauce or seasoning will impact the final look of the coluor in your application. For example, a beta-carotene powder added to a pure white base is going to look more vibrant than when it’s added to a base that contains other underlying hues or ingredients, like a seasoning blend with various herbs and spices. You can see in the photo below that the herbs and spices in the seasoning blend already have an inherent colour so the beta-carotene colour is not as obvious in the spice blend and looks a lot darker than the salt or maltodextrin. 

In addition to the base colour, the particle size of the base components will also be a determining factor in colour selection. Some products may have fine particles, some large particles, and others a mixture of both. Using the same weight to weight dose of colour for different densities will give different volumetric dilutions that are perceived as having more or less colour. Particle size can also have an impact on colour consistency in the final result. A smaller particle size could give the appearance of some colour variation or striation while a larger particle size could give an appearance of a more even colour application.   

Another important factor when colouring culinary is the chemical characteristics of the base. Specifically, the pH and the solubility since the successful use of natural colours highly depend on these two factors. The pH can significantly affect natural colours, especially when using an anthocyanin, where lower more acidic pHs result in red/pink hues while higher pHs, particularly above 4.2, can result in purple/gray tones.

Knowing whether or not your product will undergo any sort of heat treatment is also important when working with natural colours since some colours will stand up to heat processing better than others. For example, adding spirulina to a sauce or dressing that will be retort processed will typically result in significant colour fading, as seen in the image below. Using a more heat stable pigment in this scenario, such as a carmine or paprika, would allow for the pigments to stay vibrant during the heat treatment process. Alternatively, increasing the initial colour dosage rate could help offset the amount of colour loss or browning experienced during heat treatments. 

The amount of light a product will be exposed to during its shelf life is another key factor in choosing the best colour for your culinary creation. This is often determined by the type of packaging used. Will the product be in a clear bottle or container, or will it be in some sort of opaque packaging like a can? For example, a product with turmeric might see some significant fading if exposed to light, since turmeric is not considered a light stable colour. However, certain forms of turmeric can be more stable to light than others. Micronized dispersions of turmeric have tightly packed curcumin molecules which allows for colour vibrancy while protecting the pigment more from light exposure. In controlled experiments, we have observed extended colour retention in a simulated supermarket lighting setting when compared to other forms of turmeric.  

You could choose a natural colour that is more light stable, like beta-carotene or paprika. The addition of antioxidants, whether in the colour itself or in the product, can also help reduce colour fading over time. Certain colours, such as copper chlorophyll, red beet, and carotenoids typically benefit from the addition of around 250 ppm of ascorbic acid, seen in the image of paprika in breading below. Like with heat processing, increasing the initial colour dosage rate could help offset the projected color fade. 

And last, but certainly not least, making sure the colour of the product aligns with the flavor identity is crucial when bringing new products to the market. For example, it probably wouldn’t make sense to colour a hickory smoked, molasses barbecue sauce with a bright orange paprika colour. That wouldn’t match people’s expectations of that flavour description. Utilizing a rich caramel colour to deepen and enhance the natural brown colour of the base sauce would be a much better fit. 

People often associate colour intensity with flavour intensity. A sauce or condiment with more colour might be perceived as having more flavour than a lighter, pastel-coloured sauce. In the photo below, the darker orange sauce made with our emSeal® Paprika colour could be perceived as having the intense flavour of a curry ketchup. The lighter orange sauce might be seen as having a lighter, less intense flavour like roasted red pepper mayo.  

Figuring out which natural colour works best when colouring culinary applications can be tricky, but our experts are here to help you through the process. Need some help deciding? Contact us with your questions or request a natural colour sample to get started!

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 available browns for savoury applications.

Brown is a composite colour, rather than a spectral colour, so it is complex by definition. If we were to create it through a blend, we would need three primary colours. Just as an example of how hard it is to define, the Japanese language doesn’t have a specific word for it. Rather, they use descriptive names like “tea-colour” or “fallen-leaf.”

But browns are indeed ubiquitous in nature. They are found in all sorts of living creatures, mainly in the form of melanoid pigments. These are large molecules that absorb light strongly along most of the visible spectrum, that’s why they appear so dark and… ehm… brown!

And melanoid pigments are precisely the type of pigments that occur when we cook our savoury foods. A combination of Maillard and caramelization reactions is responsible not only for the attractive colour but for the more complex umami, and kokumi flavours in cooked and roasted foods.

We already know that visual imprinting predisposes our minds for flavour intensity and identity. Brown colours contribute to a complete and comprehensive sensory experience that enhances complex savoury flavors.

When faced with the challenge to choose the right brown to visually design your savoury food, you have plenty of options with a range of stability and shades to suit your particular need.

Caramel colours are great and economical candidates. They can be chosen based on pH, colloidal charge, and processing requirements (powders or liquids, etc).

Among them, caramel colour class I is widely favored by consumers because of its perceived naturalness and minimal processing. Traditionally associated with golden shades, innovations in its manufacturing have led to novel versions like Caramel Flex, featuring reddish tones and higher intensity that make them suitable replacements for classes III and some IV caramels. Another popular option is Specialty Dark caramels that allow for dose reductions when compared to the traditional Class I options, and are available as both liquid and powder forms.

But if the goal is to provide consumers with labels that remind them of everyday pantry ingredients, you can explore the Naturbrown® line, which consists of caramelized juices of selected fruits and vegetables providing whole complex ingredients with rich brown colours that hint at the perfect umami/savoury flavor.

Within the Naturbrown® line of ingredients, you can also consider barley malt extracts, that are quite label-friendly, and provide a deep brown rich colour. The limitation lies in allergen labeling because this ingredient contains gluten so it may not be an appropriate option for your formulation needs.

For the EU market, another alternative is burnt sugars. These options provide an optimal balance of complex flavor and incidental colours raging from light tan to medium brown, including rich golden hues, with a single ingredient and an attractive simple label for consumers.

These solutions provide a broad palette of brown shades that have been tested and proven in challenging applications like those with high sodium content.

The outstanding stability and versatility of our line of simple-label browns will elevate the enjoyment experience of your savoury snacks, dishes, and sauces. Have questions? Contact us for support from our colour scientists and dare to experiment the rich and deep options of our simple-label browns. Ready to get started with one of the brown options mentioned above? Request a sample here.