Flavours & Fragrances

Food colourants, flavours and fragrances are added to foods to enhance their properties. Food additives come in various forms and serve different purposes. Some food additives help store and preserve food while others are there to enhance a foods flavour, aroma and colour. As we cannot test the aroma of food, we focus on its appearance and taste.

The colour and appearance of Food influences a consumers perception about the product and affects their decision to purchase. Consumers are always looking at the consistency and reliability of their purchases, this is also true for Food Colours and Flavours. As you eat with your eyes it is important to control the colourants and flavours that make food items a specific colour.

Food colourants are made into capsules, powders or liquids that can be added to a product to give it a certain desired colour. One problem that arises with food colourants is the reaction that these colourants have to other elements or properties of the product, like pH, viscosity, temperature and solubility. Food colourant manufacturers have to ensure that the colour does not change during the production process. It is important to be highly accurate in this industry as often colours of a food indicate a certain brand or flavour.

Example from our customers:

One of our global food colourant companies use our CM-5 Spectrophotometer at their local lab. They use the device to ensure that the colour a customer has requested is the exact same colour that they receive. They use it to match the effectiveness of their liquid colours compared to an identical powder colour, thus ensuring that their liquid and powder colours are the same. Used in R&D to help develop new colours for their customers and have reduced the time taken to produce a new colour.

Colour measurment can assist Food colourant and flavour producers in the following ways:

• Measure the colour of incoming primary and lake colour before production
• Measure the colour of colourants in capsule, powder or liquid form
• Develop new colours that are tailored to a customer request
• Reduce customer rejections due to colour
• Save time and money by objectively controlling colour