Chr. Hansen launches a clean label FruitMax® product from turmeric

A coloring food that produces a bright yellow with minimal off-taste across many applications

Turmeric is a well-liked ingredient. It has been popular for ages as a color, flavor and functional ingredient, but the use of turmeric extract continues to grow. Consumers like to see it on ingredients labels, and manufacturers like to use it for precisely the same reason. Between 2017-2019, its use grew an additional 7% in Europe (Source: Mintel GNPD, 2020).

With a well-established range of natural color products, Chr. Hansen Natural Colors now offers a coloring foods turmeric that can be used across applications such as confectionery, ice cream, snacks, bakery and meals. The name of the color is FruitMax® Yellow 1000 WSS.

Special attention has been placed on minimizing the off-taste that can accompany turmeric. FruitMax® Yellow 1000 WSS is suitable for a wide variety of non-transparent packaged foods, as turmeric is well-known for light sensitivity.

“We’ve tested the stability of FruitMax Yellow 1000 WSS extensively, and are very pleased with the outcome,” states Jerome Raudin, Director, Global Marketing. “There are many good applications for this product, but ice cream, hard candy, brioche and extruded snacks come to mind as particularly suitable as the color is very robust to hard temperatures. We look forward to introducing our new FruitMax® Yellow to the market.”

For legislative reasons, FruitMax Yellow 1000 WSS is likely to find its core markets in Europe, Latin America and APAC. It is fully compliant with the EU Coloring foodstuffs guidelines, and therefore is a clean label color that can be listed as turmeric extract.

Finding the needle in the haystack: A cold bright yellow
Yellow is the most-used color in many applications, both to produce yellow but also as a blend to make green and orange and as a color brightener. In fact, of all the yellow color additives used in European product launches from 2017-19, turmeric was used in 49% of them (Source: Mintel GNPD, 2020).

It is one of the few raw materials that produces a bright yellow, whereas many natural colors like beta-carotene and even orange carrot tend to make warmer tones. And that’s just the story of color additives. When it comes to coloring foods, safflower is the only alternative that can produce a bright cold yellow; turmeric is a cost effective alternative to safflower and in some cases to orange carrot as well.

Chr. Hansen is the only provider of natural colors that combines 140 years of unique application and regulatory expertise with a strong, extensive global presence and the widest natural color portfolio in the industry, bringing ideas, expertise and solutions from the first product brief to the supermarket shelves.

The world leader, Chr. Hansen Natural Colors helps manufacturers bring safe and appetizing products to consumers at mealtimes – and any time in between. Our deep insights about markets, regulatory requirements, applications, pigments and phytonutrients place us at the forefront of the industry. Our color portfolio is the largest and most vibrant in the food industry, and our nutraceutical range has scientifically supported health benefits. We are part of Chr. Hansen Holding, known for our sustainability profile and our natural ingredient solutions for the food, nutritional, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. Listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen, we employ over 3,000 people in 30 countries.