Exberry Coloring Foods manufacturer GNT is investing US$30 million to expand its US-based facility for North American ingredient production. 

Strategically located close to Charlotte in North Carolina, the 49-acre facility will supply customers throughout the US, Canada and Mexico.

Speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst, Jeannette O’Brien, vice president at GNT USA, says the investment has been years in the making. “As part of our strategic growth plan, we’re expanding our operations in North America to help cater to the growing demand for truly natural coloring solutions across the region.”

Expanding coloring reach
In 1997, GNT USA became GNT’s first overseas sales and application affiliate, enabling the company to pioneer the concept of coloring food with food in the US. “Since that time, we’ve been able to popularize the idea of clean label coloring concentrates made from edible fruit, vegetables and plants using physical processing methods across North America. 

“Our expansive new warehouse facility in North Carolina is now open and provides benefits including increased capacity, supply-chain efficiency and improved control of inventory,” outlines O’Brien. “Additionally, on the horizon for phase three is raw material farming and production.”

“We see consistent demand for our colors as the consumption of products that are formulated with Exberry continues to grow. Part of our Strategic Growth Plan is a multiple phase expansion in North America,” says Hendrik Hoeck, CEO at GNT Group.

“The completion of the initial phase with our warehouse commissioning on October 15, 2021. This will bring increased capacity, supply-chain efficiency and improved control of inventory.”

“Our strategy to create awareness of coloring food in the US has been well executed. As a result, today you will find ‘Fruit and vegetable juice for color’ on the label of many supermarkets’ products and also in food service items,” adds Frederik Hoeck, managing director at GNT Group.

Scaling coloring food solutions
A Technical and Culinary Experience Center, scheduled to open August 2022, will provide visitors and culinary teams with an unprecedented opportunity to experiment, create and innovate together.

The 49-acre facility will supply customers throughout the US, Canada and Mexico.“Our globally aligned innovation focus fields are a big part of our investment strategy to offer new coloring food solutions. The expected completion of the next phase will bring finished goods’ production even closer to our North American customers by the end of 2022. This will increase the speed of bringing innovation to market,” explains Hendrik Hoeck.

“We look forward to hosting workshops, which will enable customers to meet teams of R&D scientists in person to collaborate on color matching, pilot plant trials and more.”

“We’re dedicated to finding innovative new solutions based on our founding principle of coloring food with food. As such, we’re always looking for opportunities to expand our wide range of raw materials as well as exploring new processing methods and new application techniques,” O’Brien adds. 

“We see our colors as a future-proof solution to evolving consumer demands, and we fully expect demand to grow and grow in the years ahead,” she concludes. 

Strides in natural colors
The natural colors industry continues to gather speed in its shift toward close-to-nature ingredients, which comes as artificial dyes are phasing out.

There is significant interest in these plant-derived ingredients due to their nutritionally functional attributes, which provide significant opportunities in the world of clean label pigments.

GNT recently hailed the Natural Food Colours Association (NATCOL)’s Code of Practice for Coloring Foods in Europe as an “important milestone” for the industry. 

The Code of Practice for the classification, manufacturing, use and labeling of Coloring Foods in the EU provides clear support for coloring ingredients made from edible fruit, vegetables and plants.

In other recent developments in the space, an international research team has uncovered a natural brilliant cyan blue color obtained from red cabbage. Prior to this discovery, the search for an authentic brilliant blue had yielded limited options.