The Chr. Hansen R&D and application team have developed a unique, liquid blue that protects the colour in that instant it hits the extremely hot candy mass.
Blue is a popular colour for fruit flavours like blueberry or fun flavours like bubble gum and blue raspberry, whereas most coloured mint lozenges benefit from a blue blend to achieve flavours like wintergreen and cool mint. Blue, however, is notoriously scarce in the natural colour palette and there is only one globally accepted natural source of blue colour. It comes from spirulina, also well-known in the food supplement market as a ‘super food.’ Stable in many applications, standard spirulina formulations meet their match in the tough production conditions of boiled candy. If manufacturers with global ambitions can’t use spirulina, their only option may be artificial colours.
This technical challenge is now solved with the global launch of FruitMax Blue 1506 WS from Chr. Hansen Natural Colours. The Chr. Hansen R&D and application team have developed a unique, liquid blue that protects the colour in that instant it hits the extremely hot candy mass.
Says Lotte Jeppesen, Global Industry Business Manager, Confectionery: “Some of the best spirulina-based products, until now, needed to be pre-dispersed at production, which can be messy, difficult and inefficient for the producers. We have seen a built-up demand for precisely this product – it’s an easy and convenient solution for all types of boiled sweets, and it performs well in both sugar-free and sugar-based applications.”
The fact is, even in sugar-based categories, manufacturers win with natural and cleaner formulations. Hard candy is perhaps the most price-sensitive confectionery category, but also in this segment, consumers are increasingly wanting natural and healthy ingredients; in even their most indulgent moments.
Concludes Jeppesen: “We are excited to put a product on the market that caters to this need. Our new patent-pending solution will be especially appealing to health-conscious brands using other natural ingredients, like menthol in lozenges.”
Chr. Hansen is the only provider of natural colours that combines 140 years of unique application and regulatory expertise with a strong, extensive global presence and the widest natural colour portfolio in the industry, bringing ideas, expertise and solutions – from the first product brief to the supermarket shelves. For more visit chr-hansen.com
