Natural Color for Gummies and Fruit Snacks
According to Mintel, the confections category is primed for innovation, as more than 70% of candy consumers enjoy exploring new non-chocolate candy varieties. Gummies and fruit snacks can become a permissible treat by leveraging perceived “better-for-you” ingredients:
Nearly 1 in 4 candy consumers
seek no artificial ingredients.
Mintel, 2024
However, don’t make the mistake of confusing natural priorities with “no color” preferences: color contributes strongly to flavor perception, consumer preference, and purchase intent.
So how can developers create with color in
gummies and fruit snacks?
To create deliciously bright gummy confections and fruit snacks, formulators should keep in mind these three factors:
Heat processing
Overcoming base notes
Acid stability
Each of these can affect color success in a finished product with both positive and negative potential depending on the target shade and color source. Color experts like my team can help you navigate these concerns and suggest the right color solution for your project!
Unleashing the Rainbow in Gummies and Fruit Snacks
Bright Reds And Pinks
For warm shades from bold red to bright pinks or to replace FD&C Red 3, anthocyanins offer a wide range of options. Beet may also be used, and a heat-stable beet solution like SupraRed™ or Magna Ruby™ can help mitigate any heat processing concerns.
Orange and Yellow
Citrusy shades like oranges and yellows can be achieved with solutions like beta carotenes, turmeric, or annatto. Color experts can help accelerate the selection of the right solution for your target shade based on clarity, cost targets, stability, and your brand’s labeling priorities
–just ask!
Blue
Historically, blues may have been challenging, but today technology and novel color sources save the day! Spirulina is a beautiful bright blue, but the market standard may precipitate in these applications. Marine Blue™ solves this problem for heat and acid stability.
Green
Although green seems plentiful in nature, it’s actually quite challenging to preserve in food and beverages. Blends of natural blues like Marine Blue™ and natural yellows fill this gap for bright greens across the spectrum from lime to slime.
Purple
Blends of natural blues like Marine Blue™ and natural reds or pinks can create a portfolio of purples. For a single-component solution with clean labeling, developers can reach for Butterfly Pea Flower Extract, an FDA-approved natural vegetable juice that presents rich purples in low acidity applications like gummies and fruit snacks.
Brown
Caramel colors can be used for a range of browns in gummy and fruit snack applications with great success due to their low cost and stability, but for brands seeking to avoid California’s Prop 65 warnings, clean label solutions like Sienna™ Fruit Juice may be preferred.
White
Titanium dioxide has been the industry standard for whitening and opacity in confections for decades, but many brands are seeking alternatives to comply with shifting global regulations and consumer sentiment. Sensient’s Avalanche™ portfolio is an industry-leading line of clean label white solutions, including options like cost efficient Avalanche™ Fusion Xtra and advanced Avalanche™ MB.
Black
Black can be achieved with black iron oxide or, for a cleaner label, blends using a combination of other natural colors such as anthocyanins and other fruit and vegetable juices.
