Naturally derived color and taste enhancing ingredients help make seasonal favorites clean-label and more appealing

Help all your best recipes fall into more vibrant color and flavor with naturally derived, clean-label color and taste enhancing ingredients from Lycored. With Lycopene sourced from tomatoes and Beta-carotene from Blakeslea trispora, Lycored’s portfolio of naturally derived ingredients stand ready to help the prepared foods industry offer solutions designed to entice consumers along every step of the journey from first glance on the shelf through consumption. 

Color is in season all year long with consumers

When it comes to foods and beverages, presentation begins a dialogue with consumer eyes that’s confirmed at first taste. This is especially important for seasonal favorites – custard filled treats need to look rich and golden and those holiday mocktails have to look authentic and delicious to win with consumers. 

This challenge can be doubly hard when considering plant-based alternatives – especially if they represent a substitute for a seasonal favorite. It must look real to taste real, only then can its proper taste and texture seal the deal. 

Because visual perception leads to product choice and purchase, it’s important to first make food look delicious so it will taste delicious. But it is clear that in light of dietary norms and consumer choice, that impression can never be achieved artificially. 

To secure that first impression from every consumer, Lycored’s naturally derived colors provide stability, ease of use in a range of brilliant yellows, oranges, pinks, and reds all certified kosher and halal, vegetarian friendly, non-GMO, and heat, light, and pH stable. 

But still, most of the prepared food industry needs more performance than ever before from their ingredients. 

Testing data proves lycopene performance and color integrity

Recent plant-based meats, dairy and beverage studies have proven that lycopene-based colors remain truer and more color stable in process than most other popular natural color ingredient alternatives. Focusing on plant-based deli ham slices and sausage-style encased meats, Lycored’s scientists compared them to the two most popular color alternatives: beet and iron oxide.

Results revealed that Lycored’s lycopene-based colors were more than ready for the rigors of plant-based food processing, as well as meeting consumer demand for an authentic look and taste. Lycored’s studies revealed that for both ham slices and sausages, lycopene-based colorants outperformed beet and iron oxide with a more authentic appearance for better consumer acceptance

Two colors, ConstantCrimson A and ResoluteRuby A for example, were shown to perform exceptionally well in milk drinks after being subjected to four different UHT processes and harsh accelerated shelf-life studies. Lycored’s red hues also delivered excellent performance in strawberry syrup-flavored sparkling water demonstrating stability over 12-months while proving resilient in the face of fading, ringing and sedimentation. 

High-performance, natural umami flavor

Lycored’s tomato-focused ingredient science isn’t finished with color. It also provides the basis for all-natural SANTE, the company’s highly versatile umami taste enhancer. SANTE provides a high concentration of natural umami compounds for a delicious taste and a cleaner label formulation thanks to reduced levels of undesirable ingredients including salt, MSG and sugar. 

More consumers are looking for nutrition and health benefits from the foods they eat, driving demand for salt and sugar reduction in prepared foods and beverages. 

SANTE, which enhances taste in savory and sweet applications, can help you “right size” the amount of salt and sugar in your recipes. reduce or even eliminate the need for salt and added sugar. Lycored’s analysis showed the all-natural tomato-based alternative to sodium additives offers significant levels of sugar and salt reduction – above 40% in many cases. 

SANTE provides the perfect foundation for building great taste into soups, sauces, baked goods, prepared foods and smoothies for great taste.

‘Tis the season for vibrant color and taste

Whether annual favorites like holiday treats or perennial favorites like pizza, the prepared food and beverage industry’s choice for high performance versatile, and naturally derived color and taste-enhancing ingredients is narrowing. Eliminating animal proteins and by-products shortens the list of viable ingredients even further. 

But fortunately, science-backed ingredients from Lycored provide a cast of reliable solutions ready for the rigors of commercial processing, naturally derived to meet today’s consumer expectations – in any season – with vibrant color and taste.

Committed to wellness and wellbeing, Lycored

Lycored is a global leader in naturally derived, Lycopene and Beta-carotene based color and taste-enhancing ingredients for plant-based and clean-label foods, beverages, and supplements. Our core mission is to cultivate wellness in all areas of a consumer’s lifestyle. Established in 1995 in Israel, Lycored is the global leader in natural carotenoids for food, beverage, and dietary supplement products. For more information visit www.lycored.com.