More Than an Ingredient: A Source of Color
Food formulators have a wide range of options for achieving color. But when evaluating those options, there’s another possibility worth considering: Could the ingredient itself help deliver the color you’re looking for?
Fruit and vegetable powders contain naturally occurring pigments that can contribute meaningful color to finished products. In the right formulation, that creates an opportunity to use an ingredient that supports the desired appearance while also bringing the inherent characteristics of the fruit or vegetable itself.
Color With More Behind It
A powder selected for its color contribution can potentially do more than change the appearance of a finished product.
Tomato, beet and paprika powders can contribute rich red tones along with their characteristic flavor profiles. Carrot powder can provide golden to deep orange tones. Spinach and other green vegetable powders can bring green tones.
For formulators, that creates an opportunity to think differently about color. Rather than viewing color exclusively as a separate addition to the formulation, certain fruit and vegetable powders can become part of the overall ingredient system—contributing color while also supporting flavor and a more recognizable ingredient declaration.
A Spectrum of Ingredient Options
BCFoods offers fruit and vegetable powders across a broad range of naturally occurring colors. The actual color delivered will depend on the specific ingredient, usage level, formulation, processing conditions and finished application. That’s why selecting the right powder is as much a formulation decision as it is a color decision.
Another Tool for the Formulator
Fruit and vegetable powders aren’t intended to replace every added color in every application. There will always be formulations where color intensity, stability, flavor neutrality or processing requirements call for another solution. But there are also applications where the ingredient system itself can do more of the work. A vegetable powder may already be part of a formulation for flavor. A different variety or usage level could potentially provide greater color contribution. In another application, a fruit or vegetable powder may provide both the visual characteristics and ingredient profile the developer is trying to achieve.
The opportunity is to consider color earlier in ingredient selection rather than treating it only as a finishing step.
Before you add color, see what your ingredients can do.
Talk with BCFoods about the fruit and vegetable powders that could work in your next formulation.
