Food Business Network News People are visual animals, every consumer is a color control, the first sight of food to determine whether there is a desire to buy. The color of food plays a vital role in the product. A good packaging design must also match the right color to achieve a mutually beneficial effect. Foodaily also reports that beautiful colors and good-looking packaging will definitely add a lot to the product. Starbucks' many explosions of pink cups, rainbow cups of frappuccino, and gradient iced drinks have been very successful examples. According to the International Food Information Council Foundation, methods for improving the appearance of food and beverage through coloring have been around for more than 2,000 years, and can be traced back to wine merchants controlling the addition of grape skins and other fruits. To achieve the color required for the wine. The first thing that comes into contact with food is the eyes of the consumer, and then it is the turn of the stomach to eat, so color is very important. Dairy consumers have specific expectations for the flavor and color of dairy products. In the eyes of consumers, strawberry milk should be bright red, while blueberry yogurt should be dark blue, Mexican cornflakes must look like cheese-like orange, and butter spread should be golden. “In today's vision-centric world, color is as important as flavor, and even more important. Social media is constantly presenting colors in a new and exciting way, such as the unicorn frappuccino launched by Starbucks. The various positions on the ins.†Megan Longhi, Dairy Product Technical Service Manager of Senxin Food Colors, expressed his emphasis on color. Food coloring has a variety of functions that help to correct color loss due to exposure to light, air, temperature, humidity, and storage conditions. It also helps to correct natural color changes, and may also enhance food. The effect of own pigments can also provide color for colorless foods, making them more attractive. Complex color challenges For more than 125 years, US food and beverage manufacturers have owned a range of available food colors including artificial and natural pigments. These pigments are precisely controlled and often checked to ensure their safety. Both types of pigments are widely used in foods to improve their original color, especially in minimally processed foods and simple dairy products. Christiane Lippert, Head of Marketing, Lycored, Switzerland, said: “Dairy products are welcoming a unique set of coloring challenges. Some pigments cannot be coordinated with high-fat formula systems, while others may be affected by pH. The biggest challenge may come from processing and storage conditions. Many dairy applications expose the pigment to extreme temperatures or to ultraviolet light, which is unacceptable to most pigments." Manufacturers of transparent and clear packaging, such as transparent packaging manufacturers such as glass or plastic, are experiencing greater obstacles. The use of clear, clear packaging to present products to consumers has become a trend, but maintaining the desired product color throughout the shelf life is difficult. Briannan Fyock, an application scientist at Hansen, said: "Transparent cups of yogurt, especially those with fruit on the bottom, may pose color challenges due to light and color shifts. For example, curcumin is very sensitive to light, so If customers want transparently packaged products that also use natural yellow pigments, I recommend capsuled turmeric or beta-carotene, which have good light stability." The color shift must also be controlled. The color of the bottom fruit should not migrate to the upper layer white. Fyock said: "We understand that water-soluble pigments tend to migrate between the layers of layered products, and this phenomenon is particularly acute in red and purple pre-made fruits." A better choice for this color shift is a water soluble emulsion, suspension or encapsulated pigment. Manufacturers need to be clear that color shifts may still exist due to different formulations, but these pigments do apply to most viscous chilled dairy products such as cheese, low fat cheese, pudding and quark cheese. DDW-The Color House produces carotenoid emulsions. This natural pigment helps reduce or even eliminate the color shift of pre-made fruits in yogurt. Jody Renner – Nantz, the company's application manager, said: “We have converted this oil-soluble pigment into a water-dispersible emulsion that can be used in aqueous systems. We also produce colors including beta-carotene and capsanthin. Transparent emulsion." The color problem in food is very complicated, so where should we start to play the color power in food? First of all, consumers are always the core. It is most important to produce products that consumers prefer. From the perspective of consumers, the pure and realistic color of food will naturally have greater appeal, and natural colors will be more popular. Guided by consumer demand, giving food true and pure color For food, watch it and taste it. Therefore, purely natural pigments are a priority for many dairy manufacturers. And petroleum-based artificial colors, legal food dyes, are very cost-effective and very stable in most dairy systems in the past; but for some applications, the color of artificial colors may be too obvious, Give consumers the impression that products are over-processed, especially for natural simple dairy products such as flavored milk and yogurt. In this regard, Lycored began to explore consumer demand for natural colors in the specific context of the dairy industry last year. Strawberry-flavored milk was the focus of research, and the study asked American mothers to evaluate the visual appearance of flavored milk with natural red pigment and artificial red pigment. The company tested two tomato-based natural pigments and artificial red pigment No. 3, and added pigment samples to flavored milk drinks for ultra-high temperature (UHT) treatment to compare pigment stability during and after treatment. These pigment samples were also subjected to shelf-life accelerated tests to simulate real storage, transportation, and retail environments, and to study pigment stability under exposure to light, darkness, and environmental conditions. When the consumer was asked to evaluate the naturalness of the appearance of the three samples, the milk samples of the two tomato-based natural pigments were all scored higher than the artificial pigment samples. Subsequently, the tester asked the subjects if they were willing to pay more for the products with natural pigments and flavors, and up to 88% of the subjects expressed their willingness. Regarding the acceptance price, the tester informed the subjects that the price of the common flavored milk drink was $1.5 and asked how much they would like to spend on products with natural pigments and flavors. On average, mothers are willing to pay 47% more than regular milk, up to $2.20 to pay for these natural pigment products. In the group discussion, moms were asked about the problem of adding strawberry milk to these three pigments, and the comments on tomato-based natural pigment milk were very positive. “It looks like the most natural blend of strawberries, so it may be for me. "The child is the healthiest", "It reminds me of a childhood drink... This color is more likely to appear in nature", "It's more attractive to me. I think it looks like an artificial ingredient." Less.†The team's results showed that buying a product that looked more like a homemade product made the mother “feel goodâ€. Other feedback also shows that consumers are moving away from those too bright and unnatural colors. Since 2011, global natural pigment sales have surpassed synthetic pigments, and self-cleaning labels have become popular. The global pigment industry has also taken the naturalization of pigments. Work hard around the needs of consumers. “We also performed four different ultra-high temperature treatments on natural lycopene: steam injection, plate heat transfer, tube heat transfer and immersion heat transfer, as well as homogenization treatments including upstream and downstream. These products are heated under high temperature conditions, such as the most severe ultra-high temperature steam injection, which can heat the product above 145 ° C (293 ° F) and keep it in direct steam for more than 5 seconds. The color of the lycopene sample is well preserved and, in fact, much better than those stained with artificial colors." Senxin's heat stable vegetable juice is another natural choice for strawberry milk and similar products. The company claims that this heat-stable vegetable juice provides bright red at neutral pH and remains thermally stable at low levels. The thermal stability of natural red pigments is difficult, and in ultra-high temperature (UHT) dairy products, the challenges of blue and green pigments are even more severe due to heat sensitivity and high water activity. Longhi pointed out: "Spirulina is a common source of blue pigment, but it is sensitive to heat and difficult to maintain. The creation of green requires a stable blue basis, so without the blue pigment, the color combination can be very Limited.†Senxin recently launched a blue pigment that is stable to heat and pH, filling the gap in natural chromatography. It is stable over a wide range of pH 3.0 to 7.0 and can be used to create green and intense purple. This pigment has a good application prospect for yogurt. Longhi believes that pigments have many opportunities for innovation in yogurt applications. “Social media allows us to share what we see, especially those that look interesting, including eye-catching colors, surprising color combinations, and even different color effects, such as flickering. In the yogurt category, limited time supplies. Color products are a great way to please consumers and provide them with the opportunity to make a photo on the INS homepage." Shaping the realism of the product Seeking innovation on natural pigments is a new way to apply pigments in yogurt, and the other is to increase the realism of the products. The results of the use of natural tomato pigments and beta-carotene, which have just ended in Lycored, have been applied to pre-made fruits in yogurt, suggesting that realistic fruit tones are the key to attracting consumers. Lippert said: “In the shelf-life accelerated test, these pigments remain fading, even under more severe lighting conditions than typical retail lighting conditions. In contrast, samples colored with other natural pigments can be problematic. For example, in strawberry yoghurt, the color shift problem is very serious, which affects the quality and freshness of the layered yoghurt on the shelf. The study also evaluated stability under industrial scale conditions. The results showed that these pigments were stable throughout the course of exposure to high temperatures for more than 30 minutes. The application of color in special categories requires more consideration Formulators must be aware that fragrances may affect the stability of natural pigments, especially in products containing fruit. Relevant experts have suggested that the addition of spices and pigments should be carried out separately. Fyock pointed out: "Some fragrances can degrade certain pigments or decompose emulsions and microcapsule systems due to certain reactive carriers and solvents. The reaction between pigments and fragrances is unpredictable, and degradation may occur immediately or slowly. Therefore, We recommend adding the pigment separately from the fragrance; adding the fragrance first, then adding the pigment after mixing." Reconstituted cheese is another dairy category with unique coloring challenges, in a variety of forms, including cheese sauce, shredded cheese and sliced ​​cheese. Most processed cheeses rely on oil-soluble pigments to obtain a satisfying cheese orange. These oil-soluble pigments include beta-carotene, carmine, and capsanthin, but this color tone is affected by a variety of processing variables. Fyock said: "Many factors can cause discoloration of the reconstituted cheese, such as high temperature exposure during processing and slow cooling after baking, and the accumulation of high temperature dryers or pipe edges can also have a negative effect on color." Other focus points include the choice of other ingredients in the recipe and the order in which they are added. In addition, the ripening process and type of cheese, and the emulsified salt may also affect the color. Lippert pointed out: "The future of dairy pigments will move in the natural direction, which is related to food safety and traceability, while giving consumers more transparency and trust. Future packaging can make consumers clear See the internal products so they can judge the taste of the product.†But it is encouraging that natural pigments can now be as stable as synthetic pigments. Longhi said: "The main demand for dairy products is plant-derived pigments, so the power of nature is gaining popularity. With today's advanced technology and analytical capabilities, performance between natural and artificial colors in almost all shade ranges. The gap is almost approaching zero." Youth Biotech CO,. Ltd. , https://www.youtherb.com