The following content originally appeared in March’s issue of Food and Beverage International, which you can subscribe to here.
Natural colour solutions can provide food and beverage manufacturers with a major edge over their competitors. By removing artificial and additive colours, manufacturers can meet the demands of 54% of consumers worldwide who want their food and drinks to be made with natural colour ingredients only. Alongside this, communicating their use clearly on the label is important as 67% of consumers say easy-to-understand ingredient information is essential. Claire Phoenix looks at how companies are tackling the challenges involved..
Credible front-of-pack claims give producers the potential to increase brand preference even when a price increase is applied. This is the result of a global consumer study which has been conducted by market research institute TNS and the GNT Group, the global provider of Colouring Foods. For the survey, 5,000 people from ten countries in Asia, the Americas and Europe were interviewed.
Choosing the right claim
A crucial requirement for the success of a product is the right choice of claim: only those perceived as credible lead to a stronger purchase intention. Here, the effect of different claims that promote the use of all-natural solutions such as Colouring Foods has been examined in more detail: both the claims ‘with natural colours’ and ‘coloured with fruit and vegetables’ are perceived as credible by more than 75%. The claim ‘coloured with fruit and vegetables’ conveys positive product characteristics such as ‘is healthy’, ‘is safe’ or is ‘100% naturally produced’ to more than two thirds of consumers.
Which claim is preferable also depends on the product category. For food and beverages perceived as generally less natural, such as sweets or soft drinks, the claim ‘coloured with fruit and vegetables’ is most suitable to uplift brand preference because it provides a clearly distinguishing message for consumers. In food categories with a more natural image, like yogurt, the claim ‘free from artificial colourants’ is perceived equally well. “It is highly important for food manufacturers to understand the reaction of consumers to labelling, in order to choose the right claim for their products. With our survey, we can provide this information for different countries, consumer groups and product categories,” said GNT group managing director Dr Hendrik Hoeck.
The right front of pack claim can support food and drink manufacturers in reaching the increasing amount of consumers who look for naturally coloured products.
What consumers understand
When it comes to using colouring ingredients and corresponding claims, manufacturers have to bear in mind that shoppers have a clear idea of how they define natural colour solutions.
It seems that 42% expect natural food colourings only to originate from edible raw material such as fruit and vegetables. Only 21% perceive colours made from substances such as insects or minerals to be truly natural.
“The trust of consumers should not be undermined by communicating a product to be all-natural but not satisfying the precise expectations on ingredients,” said Hendrik.
“Colouring Foods meet the demands of today’s consumers to the fullest extent as they are made exclusively from edible raw materials. At the same time, they can be applied to nearly every application and match additive colours in terms of diversity, stability, shelf life and colour brilliance.”
The first impression counts. This is especially true for food products and confectionery goods in particular. A recent global consumer survey, conducted by market research institute TNS on behalf of GNT, shows that when it comes to choosing fruity gums, sugar drops and the like, the colour of a product has great influence on the purchase decision. At the same time, customers all around the world place increasing value on food and beverages that are free from artificial additives. Accordingly, 40% of all consumers wish for sweets without synthetic colourants. Furthermore, almost every second consumer chooses the naturally coloured product option whenever possible.
At ProSweets held earlier this year in Cologne, Germany, the GNT Group demonstrated that manufacturers don’t have to decide between colour brilliance and natural products to fulfil the demands of their increasingly health-conscious consumers.
Visitors looked at the selection of raw materials all the way through to the application of the final concentrates in extruded sweets, hard and soft dragées or colourful snacks like popcorn and many more. With more than 400 shades in its portfolio, GNT says it provides the largest range of Colouring Foods on the market. The concentrates are suitable for nearly all product categories – from confectionery and bakery products to beverages and ice cream.
Today, GNT has global reach with offices in America, Asia and Europe and supplies more than 1,200 food and beverage companies, including seven of the ten biggest producers in the world.
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