At ProSweets Cologne 2019, FoodBev Media spoke with GNT Group’s technical sales manager Maike Frerichs about the naturally-sourced food colourings offered by the company’s Exberry brand.
The consumer desire for clean label and natural ingredients is increasing, as is the demand for plant-based ingredients, and Frerichs was keen to stress that the colouring foods range offered by its Exberry brand can fulfil these requirements as they are exclusively made from fruits, vegetables, and edible plants.
Exberry colouring foods can be used in a wide range of food and beverage applications from confectionery, enhanced waters, bakery products and more, providing vibrant and stable colours with easy-to-understand ingredients.
Frerichs also tells FoodBev that the company’s supply chain is completely vertically-integrated, allowing GNT to ensure the high quality of its range of colours from farm to fork.
According to Frerichs, colours inspired by sunshine – such as bright yellow through to deep orange – will be the main colour trend in 2019, as consumers seek out products that inspire upbeat, positive emotions.
“Consumers are becoming increasingly suspicious about the things that they eat and they really want transparency about the ingredients in their food, so it’s very important that you have a clean label and that the ingredients are easily understandable.
“By using colouring foods, you really have the most natural alternative [to artificial colourings] to bring colour into food.”
On the plant-based nature of the products, Frerichs said: “It’s a very important trend for us, as natural colourants such as carmine are made from insects and are not plant-based. Now we have solutions made from fruit and vegetables just by concentrating and you have the same colour shade in the food.
“Our supply chain is totally vertically-integrated. That means we have full control starting from the seeds through to the production where we make our concentrates using a physical manufacturing process.”
When asked about the key colour trends for 2019, Frerichs added: “We just launched a new campaign called Love Colour, and within this we think the key colour trend for 2019 will be the colour of sunshine.
“This starts with yellow going to orange and to orangey-red, so really happy shades which can be used in every application type.
“At the moment we have two key colour trends. Paler colours are becoming more popular so that the products look really natural, and on the other hand you have the desire for excitement where the consumer would like to be entertained by the things they eat. This had led to blue and other colour shades which are not that present in nature becoming more popular.”
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