CERTIFIED FOOD COLORS

Color is an extremely important part of any product formulation since it advertises the product, identifies it and tempts the customer to try it.

Water Soluble Primary Dyes

The FDA permits the use of seven (7) different water-soluble dyes in food and pharmaceutical products.  Six of these are different shades of the "primary" colors (i.e. red, yellow, and blue).  The colors are:

·         FD&C Blue #1

·         FD&C Blue #2

·         FD&C Green #3

·         FD&C Red #3

·         FD&C Red #40

·         FD&C Yellow #5

·         FD&C Yellow #6

The fact that all the "primary" colors are included in the FDA approved list permits the creation of thousands of custom blended shades that can be made using them.  In addition to the huge number of blends in our color library, the Prime Ingredients color laboratory specializes in developing new color blends to aid you in enhancing your products.

Certified food colors, both "primary" and blends, are available in a number of physical forms and in various convenient packaging.  The most important are:

POWDER - This is the most popular form for general use since it dissolves easily in water and blends uniformly in dry mixing applications.  However, the use of powders does have its limitations, such as dusting problems, poof flow characteristics, cross contamination and increased plant clean-up problems.  For these reasons, Prime Ingredients offers other, convenient-to-use forms, which are designed to help provide a cleaner, employee friendly workplace. 

GRANULAR - This form of certified color consists of larger size particles, which reduce (but do not eliminate) dusting.  Granules exhibit good flow characteristics but the disadvantage is not being able to dry blend.

LIQUID - Concentrated liquids are the easiest to use forms of color.  Prime Ingredients offers primary dyes and blends in solutions using solvents such as water, propylene glycol, and glycerin.  The advantages to liquid colors are no dusting problems, no color contaminations, minimum quality control issues, ease of measurement, and improved employee morale.

 

LAKE COLORS

Lake colors are water-insoluble, powdered forms of FD&C Dyes that are available in different dye strengths.  The following are the FDA approved Lake Pigment Colors:

·          FD&C Red 40 Al Lake 35-42%

·          FD&C Red 40 Al Lake 24-28%

·          FD&C Red 40 Al Lake 14-16%

·          FD&C Yellow 5 Al Lake 35-42%

·          FD&C Yellow 5 Al Lake 24-28%

·          FD&C Yellow 5 Al Lake 14-16%

·          FD&C Blue 1 Al Lake 35-42%

·          FD&C Blue 1 Al Lake 11-13%

·          FD&C Yellow 6 Al Lake 35-42%

·          FD&C Yellow 6 Al Lake 20-24%

·          FD&C Yellow 6 Al Lake 17-19%

·          FD&C Blue 2 Al Lake 35-42%

·          FD&C Blue 2 Al Lake 12-14%

 

Natural Colors

Many food formulations require "natural" colors - those derived from plant roots, seeds, fruits, vegetables, and even insects.  These products are exempt from FDA certification procedures.  Prime Ingredients offers the following "natural" colors:

·          WHITE - Titanium Dioxide

·          RED - Carmine (a stable Lake pigment derived from extracted Peruvian insects)

·          YELLOW - Turmeric (Curcumin), a widely used extract of a plant root from India

·          YELLOW/ORANGE - Annatto, an oil and water soluble extract of a seed grown in Africa/S.A.