Replacing Carmine Naturally Across Food And Beverages
Carmine Natural
Colouring
Carmine has historically been utilized to create vibrant red to purple shades in food and beverages. The history of cochineal and carmine traces back to ancient times for good reason: the enduring presence of this vibrant crimson natural colour serves as a testament to its remarkable effectiveness.
Cochineal (Dactylopius coccus) are stationary scale insects that originate from the tropical and subtropical regions of South America, especially Peru and to a lesser degree Mexico or Arizona. The cochineal inhabits the pads of prickly pear cacti, where they nourish themselves by consuming the plant’s moisture and nutrients.
Carmic Acid
The water-soluable extract from the cochineal
Carmine
An aluminium lake of carminic acid
Carminic acid and carmine are great natural colourants used across foods and beverages. They offer remarkable stability against heat, light, and acidity, providing a variety of shades from stunning pinks and vibrant reds to oranges and lavenders. Whilst both options are labelled as E120, carminic acid provides an orange shade typically working well in low pH applications, whilst carmine gives a very bright red shade with good light and heat stability, yet with some limitations in acidic food and beverage applications.
Carminic Acid and Carmine are great natural colourants used across foods and beverages. They offer remarkable stability against heat, light, and acidity, providing a variety of shades from studding pink and vibrant reds to oranges and lavenders.
Whilst both options are labelled as E120, carminic acid provides an orange shade typically working well in low pH applications, whilst carmine gives a very bright red shade with good light and heat stability, yet with some limitations in acidic food and beverage applications.
Limitations of Carmine Colouring
Consumer demand and legislation changes cause manufacturers to look for carmine-free alternatives in their product development projects.
Carmine lake is no longer permitted in certain applications such as ice cream and fruit ices within the EU.
An increasing number of consumers today are seeking a vegetarian or vegan diet. One-quarter of European consumers state they prefer to buy vegan products.
80% of European consumers check the ingredient list upon first purchase of a product. The demand for Kosher and Halal certified food products is growing.
Increasing global demand for Carmine colouring combined with high volatility of raw material costs cause carmine market pricing to fluctuate strongly making it harder for product developers to consider for their product recipe costing.
Carmine is a natural colouring known for its longstanding usage, but also for significant market price fluctuation. The harvesting of cochineal is heavily influenced by weather conditions and various other factors, along with the fact that it is only cultivated in a limited number of regions worldwide.
Our Sensient Food Colors Peru location enables us to participate earlier in the process flow of colour from cochineal, so we are able to provide customers a full portfolio of effective carmine and cochineal options.
Furthermore, Sensient’s Agronomy team equips our partner farmers with the tools necessary to cultivate a steady supply of cochineal at fair market pricing. Yet the challenge remains that the inherent market price volatility of Carmine can pose a considerable challenge for manufacturers in terms of forecasting and budgeting.
Technical Support in
Replacing Carmine
With bright, stable shades available, innovation can be endless and cost-effective with Sensient’s portfolio of vertically integrated cochineal and carmine options. Choosing the appropriate vegetarian and vegan alternative red shades demands careful consideration and expertise as formulators need to consider various factors when creating carmine-free products. In applications like confectionery, baked goods, or alcoholic beverages Carmine would show excellent light and heat stability and is able to resist migrating or bleeding in the final application.
Any replacement will have to
portray similar benefits.
The most common alternatives to carmine are food colourings derived from natural sources such as anthocyanins and beetroot.
However, standard beetroot concentrate would show limited heat stability. In high water activity applications, its storage stability is also restricted, making it unsuitable for products like ready-to-drink beverages, jelly gums, and hard-boiled sweets. Products that utilize anthocyanins can provide a vibrant and appealing hue in acidic applications, including beverages, fruit-flavoured gummies, and hard candies. Because anthocyanins are influenced by pH levels, the colours and stability characteristics can differ among various raw materials. Therefore, it is essential to have expert knowledge when selecting the right product solution.
Sensient’s Vegan Colouring Foods & Natural Colours
Sensient’s portfolio of natural red options allows you to achieve vibrant red shades without using carmine. This high-performing range of Natural Reds is particularly advantageous for producers of confectionery, sugar coatings, chocolate decorations, dairy products, fruit preparations, ice cream, water ice, and desserts.
Explore some of our suggestions for replacing carmine in your next food or drink applications as below. With our decades of experience in carmine replacement projects, we are happy to support formulators with natural colouring solutions tailored to customers’ needs in any food, beverage or petfood application.
Liquors, Premixed Cocktails
and Low-Alcoholic Drinks
Red and pink shades bring to mind delicious profiles from the adventurous: spicy guava, to florals: hibiscus, or to classics: daiquiri, cosmopolitan.
There are several solutions available to achieve reds and pinks in seltzers, liquors, wines, and other alcoholic beverages. Colouring foods, like Wild Berry Red, Strawberry Red or Cranberry Red are stable at low pH levels and offer beautiful pinks and reds in lower alcoholic applications like seltzers or cocktails.
Energy Drinks and other
Non-Alcoholic Drinks
One of the most cost-effective anthocyanins in beverage applications, Black Carrot adds classic red hues to the rainbow. More options with blue tints are available. If you are looking for pink solutions, black carrot or other sources like purple sweet potato can equally be very good fit.
Baked or Extruded Snacks
Colouring the base of a baked or extruded snack with natural colouring requires solutions with excellent heat stability. Discover Sensient’s Uberbeet solutions offering deep, bold reds that are able to withstand the heating process.
Pan Coated Confectionery
Creating dark, intense pink to purple shades in panning processes Sensient’s Uberbeet platform in combination with other high performing orange or yellow colourants are a perfect, and formulators can reach any desired shade naturally.
Sweet Bakery Goods
Working on eye-catching red velvet cakes or delicious red to pink cookies? Standard natural red colouring solutions, like those based on anthocyanin, for example, will shift from red to purple as a result of the rising pH during the heating step. Sensient’s Uberbeet here allows developers to achieve vibrant pink-to-red in baked, fried, panned or extruded goods.
