Coloring foods supplier GNT Group has developed a new range of blue powders derived from spirulina with significantly high color intensity. Spirulina is a blue-green algae, valued for its coloring and nutritional properties and is widely and safely consumed globally. The new range is available in both standard and micronized powder form and is offered with a choice of carriers, including maltodextrin or sugar. The powders are guaranteed to be trehalose-free, ensuring good levels of consumer acceptance, according to the company.

The new launch is part of GNT’s Exberry Coloring Foods portfolio. The range features coloring ingredients obtained from fruits, vegetables and edible plants using gentle, physical processes such as pressing, chopping, filtering and concentrating. 

Intense colors are extremely appealing to consumers and food is no exception to this rule. “Instagrammable” food is becoming increasingly popular among millennials, meaning that foods with vibrant colors are the connected consumer’s choice. Combined with the demand for natural ingredients, this has led manufacturers to seek organic base materials that deliver intense color. “People create fantastic Pinterest pages. For example, they are all color-coded or highlighting specific features,” says Lu Ann Williams, Director of Innovation at Innova Market Insights. 

Michael Serrur, Food Writer at GNT USA, previously said, “Social media, especially photo-centric platforms like Instagram, is the perfect place to showcase the vibrancy of Coloring foods. Showing examples of Coloring foods in action brings awareness to the end-consumer and demonstrates that alternatives to synthetic dyes do exist. On our Instagram, consumers are impressed by the range of colors attainable using fruit, vegetables, and plants. They are often surprised and relieved to know that companies are working with Coloring foods more frequently.” 

Natural over synthetic
A wider shift in consumer awareness towards health and wellbeing and a desire for cleaner and safer food products has led to the demand for natural food colors. In light of this, the incentive is now overwhelming for food manufacturers to clean up their products. 

According to GNT,  the spirulina-based color powders allow food and beverage manufacturers to formulate products with high-intensity blues from a natural and traceable source – and at reduced doses. They offer superior solubility and stability in a number of applications and are particularly suitable for incorporation into instant beverages, hard-panned products, fondant, white chocolate and pressed tablets.

“The challenge of achieving vibrant blue colors in food using only ingredients from a natural origin is well understood,” says Sonja Scheffler, Product Manager at GNT. “However, naturalness is what consumers are demanding so there is pressure on manufacturers to deliver that. Our new high intensity blue powders from spirulina will make it significantly easier to do so at lower doses without compromising on important product performance factors such as solubility and stability.”

The Exberry range products retain the characteristic properties of the source material and the concentrates are not selecively extracted. Consequently, within the EU they are not classified as food additives, but as foods with coloring properties and, therefore, qualify for cleaner and clearer labeling declarations. Made with GNT’s own innovative processes, they can impart almost any color shade to foods and beverages and are suited for industrial use.

GNT produces Coloring Foods from spirulina in its state-of-the-art, dedicated facility in Mierlo, Netherlands. In a recent investment program, the company doubled its spirulina processing capacity, consolidating Exberry’s position in the market for blue Coloring Foods, which have traditionally been notoriously difficult to produce. 

To ensure the highest level of quality and year-round availability, GNT controls the entire EXBERRY supply chain, with cultivation and harvesting monitored by GNT’s agricultural engineers.

GNT has, however, previously tipped the broad “sunshine spectrum” of colors ranging from bright yellow to deep orange as the trend to stimulate colorful food and beverage development in 2019. GNT has harnessed this trend in a new collection of coloring foods – Exberry Sunshine Shades. Ranging from bright sunbeam yellow to warm harvest orange, they are all derived from raw materials rooted in nature, including pumpkin, carrots and turmeric. The “sunshine spectrum” choice was revealed days after Pantone tipped the pinkish hue of “Living Coral” as its top color for 2019 and as Firmenich revealed hibiscus as its “flavor of the year for 2019.”