Black colour hails in a new food era
colour used to create black foods now have an alternative. Danish
ingredients company Chr.Hansen has come up with a free-flowing
liquid that, it claims, opens the way to new black food
applications, and added possibilities for creating new colours.
Black yoghurt anyone?
Danish ingredients company Chr.Hansen has come up with a new natural colour that it claims opens the way for new black food applications, as well as added possibilities for creating new colours.
The company spent one year in the laboratory formulating the free-flowing liquid CapColor CV-WSS that it maintains is a fitting alternative to the messy natural colour Carbo vegetabilis - a carbonised vegetable matter - traditionally used by manufacturers.
"Our expectations of CapColor CV-WSS is that by releasing such a new inventive product our whole Natural Colours business will expand, as it also creates possibilities for creating new colours by mixing it with our other CapColor range," Annette Moellgaard, marketing manager at Chr.Hansen told FoodNavigator.com.
According to the company, advantages of the new colour product lie in shorter handling time, easy to pump and mix, easy to clean off production equipment and opens the door to new types of application.
"As we know black has had limited usage due to the technical features, we thought it could expand the application areas if a more convenient formulation were developed," added Moellgaard.
The new black colour is made using the CapColor technique, for which Chr.Hansen holds the patent. This method involves suspending the tiny colour particles in a protective liquid, which, according to Chr.Hansen, makes the colours clearer and more stable.
The Danish company will roll the product out to Europe, Asia and South America - it is not allowed in the USA.
"Chr.Hansen is the first company in the world to supply a solution like this one, so we are hopeful that our new black colour will catch on," commented executive vice president of Chr.Hansen Lars Frederiksen.
Innovation is clearly a means to cut a larger slice of the relatively stagnant European colouring market, valued at $237.4 million (€268.2m) in 2001.
Market analysts Frost & Sullivan pitch the compound annual growth rate of food colours at only 1 per cent for the period 2001-2008. But they predict the market will benefit substantially from the burgeoning trend for natural colours and the growth in the functional food and beverages market. Already natural colours are currently seeing growth of an estimated 10 to 15 per cent, fuelled by consumer interest in natural products, and consumer perception that all E-numbered products are unhealthy.
