Food manufacturing company General Mills Inc. has long been figuring out the best natural food colouring agents. With the use of fruits, vegetables and spices, they are trying to replace artificial food coloring that may suit the palate of consumers without compromising the overall appeal and taste of the food products consumers have gotten used to.
It has been reported that Americans are becoming concerned over artificial food coloring, flavorings, dyes, and preservatives. This increasing demand from consumers prompted food companies in the recent years, as health officials warn. This is also due to the increasing obesity rates in the U.S.
General Mills Inc., one of the biggest American manufacturers of consumer foods that markets well-known brands such as Trix, Cheerios, Yoplait, and Häagen-Dazs, has been testing and trying out various combinations of natural food colouring alternatives but still some goals haven't been met, like the color matches for the neon-green or turquoise corn puffs in Trix cereals.
In a story by Wall Street Journal, Candy manufacturing giant Hershey Co. said early in February that they would start replacing artificial ingredients and stick with "simpler, shorter" list of items that consumers "recognize and trust." It was simple: genetically modified beet sugar to be replaced with cane sugar.
However, removing emulsifiers like polyglycerol polyricinoleate would require adding more cocoa butter to enable the chocolate to flow into the molds properly. That results to added amounts of fat and increased production cost for the company.
On the other hand, famous ketchup manufacturer Kraft Heinz Co. was able to develop new coloring for its iconic macaroni and cheese using spices such as turmeric, paprika and annatto extract as well a plant called stevia as replacement for artificial sugar without the added calorie content in their baked beans.
This food phenomenon has become somewhat frustrating to some in the food industry albeit decades of technological advances.
