Marine Blue Coloring Solutions in Confectionery

“Elevate the everyday” continues to be a key consumer interest now evolving to a desire for products and brands that provide powerful and emotional experiences. In today’s hyper-connected online world, experiences for some consumers gain value if they are sharable and present the ability to go viral. More than half of Chinese consumers share food and drink information on social media. This can be a visual of their own cooking, recipes, or foods they consume. In countries like South Africa or Mexico, every 3rd consumer does the same, Mintel reports in their Global Food Trends 2021. “Post-It” is a trending theme for food and drink! Being unique and/or colorful is a perfect enabler to become “share-worthy” and it creates further consumer interest. In countries like Mexico, Spain, and the US, about every 3rd consumer tried a new food or drink product that they discovered on social media.

The colors in nature are diverse and abundant. When it comes to food from nature, it comes in all facets of reds, oranges, yellows, or greens. Blue, however, is not commonly found. Even blueberries are not truly blue and have more of a deep purple shade coming from a natural colorant named anthocyanins. In the world of manufactured foods however, blue is a color that certainly attracts attention. From a formulation standpoint, blue has been a historically challenging shade to achieve with natural food colors. In some confectionery products, manufacturers may still decide to reach blue color shades via artificial coloring solutions, for example Blue #1, namely Brilliant Blue.

With the consistent global trend towards more naturalness, many manufacturers preferably opt for a natural coloring solution that is based on spirulina. Spirulina is a blue-green algae that contains a number of nutrients and is, for example, offered as a nutraceutical. For many consumers, spirulina has a “superfoods” status. Phycocyanins being the main coloring compounds in spirulina are said to have antioxidant- and anti-inflammatory properties. The usage of spirulina-based coloring solutions in the food and beverage industry perfectly meets consumers’ desire for more ingredients from natural origin.

Spirulina-based food coloring can provide bright sky-blue shades, but it poses two challenges: heat stability and low-pH environments. Both parameters in combination ‘double the trouble’ and formulators would see undesired effects like poor color stability or precipitation:

This example demonstrates what could happen with spirulina-based coloring solutions in low pH environments: the blue turns into a more turquoise color shade.

With Sensient’s consistent focus on delivering high-performance coloring solutions combined with innovative formulations that perfectly work in food and beverage products, the R&D team is proud to release an extension to the portfolio of Marine Blue options that are spirulina-algae based. With Sensient’s expertise in color formulations and decades of application know-how, the newly developed Marine Blue options work perfectly in jelly sweets and hard-boiled candy with neutral pH. Think of concepts such as cool mint, fresh breeze, ice or glacier candy, and more… With excellent coloring performance and high ease of handling, these Marine Blue solutions achieve vibrant and deep blue color shades to enable customers’ confectionery products to stand out:

Are you interested in cloudy solutions for jelly sweets and high-boiled candies? With recent events and titanium dioxide being under scrutiny from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Commission, we welcome you to test and use solutions from our global Avalanche™ portfolio.

Sensient’s Avalanche™ MB is a mineral based alternative to titanium dioxide with enhanced stability compared to other industry options highly suitable for jelly sweets and hard candy. It is compliant in many regions across the globe, and Sensient’s regulatory team is glad to support with further guidance for specific markets to cater to customers’ individual needs. If you would like to receive further guidance and support, you can request a consult here.

For more flexibility, Sensient’s Marine Blue can certainly be used in custom blends to cover a broader color spectrum. Food manufacturers can equally achieve custom blues, greens, and purple shades in both transparent or cloudy form with natural solutions that can impart color into food and beverage products.