Colour me natural

25-Jan-2008 - Last updated on 12-Apr-2010 at 10:58 GMT

Replacing synthetic colours is not a simple process and is presenting a host of challenges surrounding formulation and shelf-life, says Rod Addy

The tsunami of public demand for all-natural food and drink products has engulfed the whole industry and continues to sweep all before it. Processors have little choice but to surf it as best they can.

Vast swathes of the industry continue to switch to naturally sourced colours. The latest Food Manufacture market report, compiled in association with RTS Resource, predicts UK sales of synthetically sourced colours will decline, from £24.8M to £23.3M, from 2007 to 2012. Yet in the same timescale, it forecasts £3.1M of value growth in natural colours, from £15.1M to £18.2M. Derbyshire-based Overseal Natural Ingredients reckons most products on retailers' shelves will be free from synthetically sourced additives within two years.

Under consumer pressure, manufacturers are reformulating fast, ahead of possible changes to laws covering the use of colours at EU level, European Commission (EC) Directives 94/36 and 95/45. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is currently conducting two assessments covering colours. One concerns the Southampton University study, published in September, claiming that certain colour combinations encouraged hyperactivity in children. The colours involved were sunset yellow (E110), quinoline yellow (E104), carmoisine (E122), allura red (E129), ponceau 4R (E124), tartrazine (E102), with preservative sodium benzoate (E211).

"EFSA is holding a plenary meeting on March 5 when it will give its opinion," says Clair Baynton, head of the Food Standards Agency's (FSA's) novel foods, additives and supplements division. "Separately, EFSA is conducting an ongoing safety assessment of all additives. Opinions will come through as EFSA issues them."

The FSA has invited the industry to provide it with information on the action it has taken to date and plans to respond at a board meeting in the spring. Baynton adds: "Small to medium enterprises may not be aware of all the work being done in this area by larger manufacturers. We are organising a technical symposium in February or March, to communicate that."

Peter Atkinson, partner in legal firm Pinsent Masons' regulatory team, says: "Current EC regulations contain no identifiable dangerous levels, so this is left to 'good manufacturing practice'. EFSA's conclusions may flesh out the definition of colours or the definition of what is good manufacturing practice."

Possible legal outcomes

"Regulators might say manufacturers must decide on different levels of pigments in products or they could take a colour off the list," says Atkinson. "It depends on the level of risk outlined by scientists."

Any changes to EU law could filter down to the UK 1995 Colours in Food Regulations within months, he says.

Under pressure from retailers, manufacturers are determined to find suitable natural alternatives for existing synthetics ahead of EFSA's opinions. For example, Udi Alroy, vice president, global marketing and sales at international ingredients firm LycoRed, says: "A lot of beverage manufacturers have used synthetic beta-carotene - Red 40 - and are now switching to natural beta-carotene."

'Going natural' presents a plethora of problems. Processors are restricted to existing colours and processes unless they clear their innovations under the EC's Novel Foods Regulation. "From the time the current colours legislation came into force, almost 15 years ago, there were concerns that the palette of colours and the levels people could use were too restrictive," says Lynne Insall, food safety manager at the Food and Drink Federation. "These restrictions could get even tighter and we may have to get used to food looking different."

Marketing and consumer pressures

It's not just the law that can restrict manufacturers. "If you follow the BBC's style guide, Doctor Who's Tardis is a specific kind of blue that's difficult to recreate naturally," says Finsbury Food Group md Dave Brooks. Blue colouring can be derived from natural sources such as blueberries or blackberries, but these anthocyanins have a low pH and become unstable easily in many foods. "Companies such as Disney and the BBC are becoming firmer over standards," says Brooks. "So you may not be able to do a Tardis cake, but you can do a cyberman cake because [cybermen are silvery grey and] that's less of an issue."

Shoppers also identify certain brands with certain hues, especially where soft drinks are concerned. Any obvious changes could confuse them and damage sales. If manufacturers want to avoid that, their choice of natural colours is limited. And in some cases, there are few or no natural sources of a colour. "Some colours, such as the green used in lime cordial for example, cannot be replicated," says Liz Bastone, media manager at the British Soft Drinks Association.

Processors could also be limited by what the consumer, and possibly regulators, will accept as natural. Paul Collins, UK director of global natural colours and colouring foodstuffs supplier GNT is adamant: "Adding a processing aid to a natural colour to promote stability is not natural. We wouldn't be inclined to use, say, an artificial emulsifier such as polysorbate. And while chlorinated and hydrocarbon solvents may be permitted, they are not really consistent with developing consumer interest."

Some firms use colouring foodstuffs to resolve the 'natural' debate. "For example, you can use paprika to colour products and just list it as an ingredient. The same pigment selectively extracted would have to be labelled as an E number," says Overseal Natural Ingredients md Andrew Wainwright.

Companies that stick with natural colours must confront the obstacles presented by their instability even if external restrictions have been addressed. "Artificial colours are much more soluble and stable than natural colours, which can have a tendency to oxidise," says Bastone. Combining natural colours with existing packaging therefore creates problems. "Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is porous to oxygen. Many natural colours react with oxygen and if they react, the colour disappears," says one industry source.

Natural colours may also react differently to heat and light. "If something is exposed to sunlight, for example, in a corner shop, natural colours can be affected and the colour could change over time," says Insall. "Dealing with the shelf-life issue can take months."

Stability can also depend on pH. Vegetable sources of anthocyanin, for example, tend to be popular because they have higher pH than fruit sources, making them less acidic and more stable in products than fruit equivalents.

While stability can be enhanced by improving the purification process, moving to natural colours can raise other challenges. "Producing clear orange products is more of a challenge than producing cloudy products. In order to get a clear product large quantities of emulsifiers need to be used that can ruin the taste," says Bastone.

Supply and demand

Where natural pigments are found that suit manufacturers' purposes and solve stability issues, demand for them rockets, but that can limit supplies, lift costs and slash margins.

s"There's a strain on the supply chain because there's a finite availability for natural raw materials," says Wainwright. "When the scandal involving Red 2G [and the EFSA's concerns with its link to cancer] hit the press in July, our phones were virtually melting with people seeking alternatives. That put pressure on manufacturing and supply to get things to people as quickly as they wanted."

The natural market is also more vulnerable to seasons and weather conditions than the synthetic market. Overseal deals mostly with orange and red pigments, sourced from crops such as paprika (orange) and black carrot and red grape (red). "Given the climate we've had in Europe in the past year, yields haven't been great," says Wainwright. This adds to the influence weather has at the other end of the supply chain, he says, such as the sudden spikes of demand soft drinks or ice cream manufacturers meet when a heat wave hits.

The shortfall could be met by growth in production in emerging economies such as China and India. But this will take time, says Wainwright, as at the moment producers need to mesh their quality control and traceability standards to those required by European businesses.

Creating higher pigment strengths from raw materials, enabling manufacturers to use less to get the same results, can help address supply problems, explains Wainwright. Blending two different pigments together to make reserves last longer is another way forward, he says. However, this can change the final colour's shade and properties.

Undoubtedly, moving to natural colours has generated many opportunities, but the consequences can drain a business's time and finances. As Bastone says: "A number of retailers are moving towards the removal of artificial colours and this has had a great effect on own-label manufacturers. The focus on natural products has resulted in a great deal of new product development, shelf-testing and production trials all of which come at a cost."

How manufacturers weather the storm remains to be seen. FM

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