COLOUR H a r v e st e d f r o m N at u r e

APPLICATION GUIDE

NATURAL ColoUr Solutions for

Beverages

Natural colours suitable for beverages vary greatly by the type of beverage and packaging. The pH of a beverage is one of the great-est influencers in predicting the performance of natural colours. While colours such as paprika and beta-carotene can withstand a wide pH range, anthocyanins will appear bright red in soft drinks and sports drinks at a pH around 3.0, but are not stable in near neutral pH beverages and will fade from blue to grey, to colourless. If the pH of the beverage is below 2.0, as seen in many carbonated soft drink concentrates, the natural options currently available will be limited in these applications due to precipitation.

Ingredients such as added flavours, vitamins, and polyphenols can interact with different natural colours. vitamin C, for example, enhances the stability of natural beta-carotene, but weakens the colour stability of anthocyanins.

Blue, green, and purple hues are more difficult to achieve for ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages as they are not stable to heat or light. However, they are well-suited for powdered drink mixes. Because there are such a wide variety of beverage types and available natural colours, it is often necessary to work directly with colour experts to create custom blends to achieve the right hue that will function properly within a particular beverage system.

NATURAL COLOUR BLENDS FOR DRY MIX BEVERAGES

Formulating natural colours for use in a dry beverage mix may require matching both surface shade and recon-stituted beverage (liquid) colour. In order to match both, custom blends are often necessary. Additionally, dry

powders are typically in packaging that protects them from light, op-tions such as turmeric and spirulina are available, allowing for a wider range of yellow, green, blue, and purple hues for instant beverages. Dry mixes for chocolate protein drinks or chocolate milk, may contain a blend of caramel colour and beet, or another natural red colouring, to enhance the colour of the cocoa and to replace synthetics. The powders that DDW recommends for dry beverage mixes have con-sistent particle size to prevent striations of colouring.

COLOURING FOODS

DDW now offers a line of fruit and vegetable juice extracts for colour, or ‘colouring foods‘, from our natural co-lour manufacturing plant in Cork, Ireland. These juice blends can be used in a variety of beverage applications including sparkling beverages and sports drinks. These ingredients are gently processed and can be simply labeled as “[fruit/vegetable] extract.“

Orange and yellow colouring foods blends, such as DDW Spring Orange or DDW Mellow Yellow, are well suited for beverages because they can withstand heat and a wide pH range. Anthocyanin-based blends, such as DDW Ruby Red, function best in beverages with a pH of 4.0 or below for red shades.

For other hues, spirulina now expands the range of purple and green blends available for beverages. However, spirulina performs best in dry mix beverages because it cannot withstand the high heat and acidic conditions it may be exposed to for extended periods during processing.

NATURAL COLOUR SOLUTIONS FOR RTD BEVERAGES

DON’T SEE THE COLOUR YOU NEED?DDW’s team of colour experts welcomes the opportunity to create custom solutions.

NATURAL COLOURS, BURNT SUGAR, & CARAMEL COLOUR

Grape Skin

Purple Carrot

EmulsiTechTM Paprika

EmulsiTechTM Beta-Carotene

Burnt SugarClass I

Caramel ColourClass IV

Caramel Colour

Natural Colours also work well in sparkling or sports drinks and expand the range of colours available. Purple to red options include grape skin or purple carrot, while orange to yelllow options include DDW’s EmulsiTech™ Paprika and Beta-Carotene. Cola concentrates, however, have a pH of 2.0 or lower, which is gener-ally not suitable for natural colours and simple label browns. Class IV Caramel Colours are the best options for concentrates due to their excellent acid stability. DDW offers low 4-MeI Class IV Caramel Colours for such applications.

Red Beet Red Beta-CaroteneEmulsiTechTM

Beta-CaroteneDDW Emerald

GreenSpirulina Purple Carrot Burnt Sugar

The tranluscent packaging and opaque nature of milk based drinks provide light protection for natural colours, allowing for more colour options. Therefore, the main stability considerations when choosing a natural colour for dairy beverages are pH and heat from pasteurisation. Since milk has a neutral pH, natural colour sources such as beta-carotene, annatto, turmeric, carmine, and beet work well and provide a wide variety of options in the yellow to orange and pink to red hue range. Burnt Sugars and NaturBrown™ ingredients can provide a variety of hues for chocolate milk and instant chocolate milk mixes. However, it is often necessary to blend these with beet in order to attain a “chocolate“ hue. Blue, purple, and green hues can be achieved in dry mixes for milk beverages using spirulina and spirulina blends.

COLOURING FOODS

Amber Brown

Ice Purple

Pink Rose

Crimson Red

Fire Red

Vibrant Orange

Spring Orange

Mellow Yellow

The most common colours for sparkling beverages and sports drinks are red, orange, and yellow. For pink to red, anthocyanin-based blends, such as DDW Pink Rose, Crimson Red, and Fire Red, offer suitable alternatives to synthetics. These colours typically function best at a pH of 3.0, so they should be added upon dilution rather than directly to the concentrate, and are generally heat and light stable. For orange to yellow hues, DDW’s Vibrant Orange, Spring Orange and Mellow Yellow colouring foods blends provide stable, vibrant colours. Additionally, DDW offers an Amber Brown colouring food blend that can be used in place of caramel colour or synthetic colour blends. All of DDW’s colouring food blends meet the JECFA criteria for “colouring foods“ and can be labeled simply as “fruit and vegetable juice concentrate.“

The colours shown in this guide are general representations of natural colours in beverage ap-plications. Colours may vary by application, system, processing method, computer monitor, and printer. To receive recommendations for your specific product, please contact us.

NATURAL COLOUR SOLUTIONS FOR RTD DAIRY BEVERAGES

EmulsiTech™ Paprika Cloudy

Manufacturing in USA | UK | Ireland | China | Malaysia | Swaziland | Brazil

EmulsiTech™ COLOURS FOR BEVERAGESEmulsiTech™ natural colour emulsions are produced using cutting-edge, microemulsion technology in DDW's new state of the art facility in Louisville, KY. Oil soluble colour sources, such as beta-carotene and paprika, are converted into water dispersible forms, making them suitable for colouring beverages. Clear and cloudy be-ta-carotene and clear paprika emulsions are available. In the presence of vitamin C, EmulsiTech™ products are heat, light, and pH stable, have low flavour, and provide a simple label option for replacing Sunset Yellow and Tartrazine in Beverages

DDW’s EmulsiTech™ Cloud is an opacity agent that allows product developers to create cloudy or opaque bev-erages without the use of titanium dioxide. DDW offers a liquid version that is easily incorporated into ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages and does not settle out over time, as well as a powder option for dry mixes.

DDW TECHNOLOGIES

EmulsiTech™ PaprikaClear

EmulsiTech™ Beta-Carotene

Cloudy

EmulsiTech™ Beta-Carotene

Clear

EmulsiTech™ Cloud

No Colour Added

SPECIALTY DARK BURNT SUGARS & NaturBrown™ INGREDIENTS

DDW offers Specialty Dark Burnt Sugar options that can be used in place of synthetic brown blends or caramel colours. These ingredients provide a dark red-brown colour that is up to three times darker than traditional Class I Caramel Colours. They are available in liquid or pow-der form and can be used to replace some Class III and single-strength Class IV Caramel Colours. These ingredients are stable in beverages above pH 2.8.

Additionally, DDW offers NaturBrown™ ingredients that are created through a simple cooking process and standardised for colour. They can be added to RTD beverage applications to impart a slight flavour with standarised brown colour. Fruit options include apple, and pear, and can be labeled simply as “cooked [fruit] juice concentrate.” Vege-table-based options include tomato, onion, garlic, and mirepoix. They can be labeled simply as “cooked [vegetable] juice concentrate.”

info@ddwcolour.com | + 1 353 21 4353821 | www.ddwcolour.com