Ingredient Challenges: Putting Color in Those Cheeks
New hybrids of potatoes, cauliflower and corn in odd colors may mean fewer additives for some processed foods. Seed companies are using traditional breeding and genetic engineering to develop new hybrids of seeds that produce conventional vegetables and fruits to express a rainbow of colors.
“Consumers respond to colors that are visually appealing. It does not seem to matter whether they are derived from a natural or synthetic source,” observes Gale D. Myers, manager of application development for dispersions and coatings at a food coloring company.