Natural colourant for plant-based meat alternatives launched

26-Oct-2017 - Last updated on 06-Nov-2017 at 17:20 GMT

Red colourant: suitable for foods that undergo a long cooking process

A clean-label natural red colourant range for plant-based meat alternatives has been introduced by Frutarom.

Bright’n Free Red Rosy is claimed to be highly heat-stable, making it suitable for grilled, raw-cured, and par-cooked vegetarian sausages as well as other foods that undergo a long cooking process.

The red colourant is a simple concentration of squeezed plant juices rich in the antioxidant anthocyanin, Frutarom said.

The main challenge in colouring plant-based meat analogues was to find the right balance between heat stability and maintaining the desired shade of colour, said Thierry Gay, Frutarom Natural Colours Europe’s technical sales director.

“Most existing natural solutions are based on beetroot colours, which are not the typical red consumers expect in meat substitutes,” said Gay.

“We identified a natural source of anthocyanin that is less pH-sensitive. It is important to regulate the pH of the meat analogue at around 5.3, otherwise it turns bluish.”

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