The GNT Group has expanded its range of yellow Exberry Coloring Foods with a new powder made from company-cultivated carrots that enable manufacturers to deliver a brilliant yellow color shade in a wider range of applications. The powder is ideal for bakery as well as dry mixes including custard, brioches and biscuits. However, as manufacturers explore the connection between color and perceptions of flavor, this brilliant yellow plays into Middle Easterns and African cuisines as well as summer trends to add a “splash of sunshine.” 

Today’s consumers are increasingly seeking out new food and drink experiences from around the world. Middle Eastern and African cuisines, for example, are very on-trend and there’s greater demand for flavors such as turmeric, ginger, tamarind and citrus, Maartje Hendrickx, Market Development Manager, GNT Group, tells FoodIngredientsFirst. 

“Our Exberry yellow shades are ideal as they can bring Instagrammable color to a vast range of applications while supporting clean and clear labeling,” she says. “There is a huge demand for vibrant colors. Recent research by Innova Market Insights indicates that while there is increasing interest in healthy and natural products, there is also a growing role for more colorful food and drink, including bright and unusual colors.”  

Building on the popularity of Exberry’s carrot-based liquid yellows, this new powder performs extremely well with good stability and a long shelf life, as well as providing an ideal clean label replacement for colorants such as carotenes.

The color-flavor link and denoting freshness
Using vibrant colors can make a product stand out on the shelf as well as sending a message that it’s fresh, notes Hendrickx.

“For example, a strawberry and orange smoothie should ideally appear sweet, juicy and fresh. If it doesn’t, it might look bland or past its best. In this way, there’s a strong connection between color and perceptions of flavor. But it’s not only about how it appears. While eye-catching colors can draw shoppers in, they’ll hesitate to buy products with undesirable ingredients, so it’s essential to use clean label colors,” she explains.

“Consumers are paying closer attention to labels and they want short and simple ingredient lists. Exberry is ideal as it can be listed on the label in a straightforward way such as: Coloring Food (concentrate from carrot and pumpkin).” 

The Exberry Shade Yellow – Cloudy Powder is pH-independent and provides good light and heat stability, along with a 12-month shelf life at <25⁰C.

Both the liquid and powder formats are made from carrots grown by GNT’s farmers and are manufactured without chemical solvents.

based on the principle of coloring food with food, Exberry products are made from fruits, vegetables and edible plants using gentle, physical processes such as pressing, chopping, filtering and concentrating.

As Exberry’s coloring foods are entirely plant-based, they fully support clean and clear labeling. “We also adopt a sustainable approach, including recycling a lot of our waste as animal feed. It’s about offering that full package to meet modern consumer expectations,” Hendrickx notes. 

A splash of sunshine 
Yellow shades are ideal for a variety of product options, continues Hendrickx. “They can be used to bring a sense of sunshine to food and drink, helping to inspire positive emotions, or for seasonal launches, such as summer and Eastern products,” she says.

In terms of helping manufacturers overcome clean label coloring challenges, Hendrickx points out that although coloring foods can deliver an appearance comparable to synthetic colors, they are not a plug-and-play solution. 

“There are various factors that can affect performance, including the pH, acidity, density and color of the base product, as well as the way a product will be processed and stored. With this in mind, our new carrot-based powder has been developed specifically for bakery applications (as well as dry mixes including custard, brioches and biscuits). It has been optimized to offer excellent performance in these applications, so that manufacturers can feel comfortable making the switch away from synthetic colors to coloring foods, knowing that their products will look perfect,” she says. 

This latest launch follows on the heels of two new Exberry Coloring Foods that deliver bright orange shades in powder and oil-dispersible formats, unveiled in May. 

GNT also spotlighted the importance of natural colors amid the boom in meat and dairy alternatives, in June when the Netherlands-based manufacturer supplier launched new resources on its website to highlight the importance of color in vegan-friendly meat, dairy, cheese and fish alternatives.

Last October, FoodIngredientsFirst toured the GNT headquarters in Mierlo, the Netherlands while speaking to Exberry Managing Director Frederik Hoeck on the growing consumer appetite for “food from food,” which is quickly becoming ubiquitous across global markets.

Industry trends for naturality 
Consumer demand for intense colors that excite the senses is driving NPD in the color space which is boosted by an added demand for naturality. Industry is increasingly looking for lively colors that occur naturally and can support clean label status.

The role of colors and flavors is highly significant in the development of successful new products as consumers aim to balance tastiness, clean eating, transparency, and a stronger personalized approach to fit their lifestyles. In an Innova Market Insights Trends Survey 2019, 74 percent of global consumers agreed or strongly agreed that they loved to discover new flavors, while 57 percent thought it was important to consume foods and beverages that were good for their bodies.