Recent trends in the food industry have favored the use of naturally derived food colorants at the expense of synthetic food coloring ingredients. This has been welcomed by consumers and activists, but it has presented challenges to food manufacturers. Primarily, natural colorants suffered from a lack of vividness, consistency, and shelf life.
Finding suitable replacements for synthetic food colorants can be straightforward but in many cases no suitable “one-for-one” replacement exists. Often, a manufacturer must accept a difference in shade, a higher cost of use, or a shorter practical shelf life.