Natural Colouring in Ice Cream Water Ice and Frozen Treats
Sparking Indulgence with Frozen Treats
Let’s grab a little treat.
Ice pops, slushes, frozen novelties, and other frozen treats are fun and delicious ways for today’s consumers to treat themselves. These frozen goods are often nostalgic for consumers and offer a small spark of affordable joy amidst busy lives.
Ice cream and novelties align with joy for 90% of consumers, and as consumers are trying to maximize joy and are comparably less constrained by tighter budgets than last year.
MINTEL 2024
Especially for younger consumers, having a frozen snack, drink, or dessert is just part of daily life. It’s a regular shopping habit, and consumers seek flavourful additions to their diets.
Ice cream enjoys near-universal usage, with 90% of UK adults eating these frozen treats in summer. 51% of these have reported doing so once a week or more.
MINTEL 2024
Experiential Frozen Treats:
Delicious & Fun
It’s not just about enjoying something tasty, either; consumers want to have a delightful, novel experience via the foods that they consume. Interesting flavours, textures, or colours can lead the way to an extra-special frozen treat. Consumers are looking for unique flavours and format varieties to bring unexpected twists to common, well-loved products.
1/3 of European food and beverage consumers say that they like experimenting with different flavour combinations.
MINTEL 2024
Perhaps the best way to entice consumers and highlight flavour and texture profiles is through colour, and natural colour is on the rise along with other premium ingredients. Consumers are willing to spend more on “worth it” treats and products.
61% of ice cream consumers in Germany look for options made from natural ingredients.
MINTEL 2024
Look to natural colour to add visual interest and appeal to ice pops, slushes, and other frozen treats. Here are considerations to keep in mind:
Natural Colour in Ice Pops,
Slushes, Frozen Treats
Acidity
Many ice pop, slush, and frozen treat applications will have an acidic, low-pH environment. It’s important to choose colours that will thrive in these conditions and not break down under acids. Sensient offers stable hues made from anthocyanins like black carrot that can withstand the right pH levels, which are typically around 2.5 to 3.5 in ice pops and slushes.
Solubility
For many of these frozen snacks, water is the main base. High water content can affect the solubility of many colours that may be oil soluble, such as beta carotene. Our proprietary AET™ technology can mitigate any issues caused by natural colour solubility to prevent bleeding or separation.
Light
If packaged in clear wrapping or containers, ice pops or other frozen novelties might be subject to a good deal of light exposure throughout their lifecycles. Opting for a natural colour that will withstand light is a key factor in selecting the right choice.
Temperature
When incorporating natural colours into ice cream, it’s important to remember that the base undergoes both heating and freezing processes. Therefore, the colour used must be heat stable to withstand these production steps. While freezing generally does not pose a challenge for colour stability, heating can significantly affect it. Our Uberbeet solution offers excellent heat stability, delivering vibrant red to pink hues in ice cream applications.
Need help understanding stability?
Colour Considerations for Frozen Novelties
For those products that don’t fit in the confines of ice pops or slushes, there are other factors that go into choosing the right natural colour.
Fat-Based Coatings
To achieve a strong colour that won’t bleed or fade, Sensient’s Advanced Dispersion Technology technology offers a highly stable way to use natural colour in fat-based applications.
Colours for Dairy
and Non-Dairy Bases
When it comes to colouring foods and natural colour in ice cream, frozen dairy treats, or nondairy frozen treats, choose sources that work well in higher pH systems. Natural Brown and Marine Blue™ are good choices.
A (Frozen) Rainbow of Colours for
Ice Pops, Slushes, and More
Reds & Pinks
Anthocyanins offer a wide range of pink and red natural colours that are water soluble and stable in acidic environments. Sensient offers powerful red shades with the Uberbeet™ Uberbeet™range.
Orange & Yellows
Beta carotene is a diverse natural colour source that can produce many shades of yellow and orange. Though it is naturally oil soluble, Sensient offers Advanced Emulsion Technology™ that can make it work in any water-based application as well.
Greens, & Blues
We make blues shine with sources like spirulina. Our Marine Blue™ is another innovation that can make spirulina more stable if needed. Natural greens can be achieved with Cu-Chlorophyllin or through a measured blend of natural blues and yellows.
Browns & Whites
If in need of a cocoa reducer or caramel replacer, look to Sensient’s Natural Brown™ portfolio. For titanium dioxide substitutes, we have Avalanche™ for a whitening or cloud agent. As colours come more under scrutiny by legislation, we want to offer you any solution you need for bringing your product to life – compliantly!
