blog post showing how to make your beverages look natural - best colours, flavours and extracts

The secret ingredient for natural-looking beverages

We all as food manufacturers have one goal, make our products look and taste natural. In this article, we want to focus on what makes beverages look natural.

Generally, when we use a colour in a beverage, the beverage looks transparent. Like this orange blend.
But when we squeeze a real orange and pour it in a drink, it doesn’t look transparent. It looks like this:

Customers tend to choose natural-looking products because it provides them with a sense of safety, it represents a familiar look that they are used to. Then the question is:

How can we make beverages look natural?

You can still use any colour you want and add the secret ingredient Plant-Ex’s Neutral Cloud Agent!
After extensive research and development, we tailored the perfect formula to make it look exactly like a real fruit was used.

What makes the cloud agent special?

It is formulated with stabilizers and ingredients to generate a cloudy look in it.

Here are some examples by our application kitchen where you can see the cloud emulsion in action:

Colours used: Spirulina Extract CF0012 – 0.5 – 1% Cloud Emulsion FI013488A – 0.03%

The blue colour has been mixed with the cloud emulsion to give the sports drink a healthier look.

You can also see the cloud agent alone in this example:

Product Name: FI013488A Neutral Cloud Agent

Solubility: Water

Format: Liquid

pH: 4.0 – 7.0

Shade: Increases cloudiness/turbidity

Notes: More natural appearance for fruits

Dosage: 0.05 – 0.2%

More colours you can use the cloud agent with:

You can use the cloud emulsion with any colour that is clear in solution. However, there would be no point in using it with a colour such as beta Carotene as it is already cloudy.

If the colour you wish to use the cloud agent with is not here, pop us an email at sales@plant-ex.com and we can assist you.

What else can I do to make my beverage more natural?

  1. Use an FTNF; From the Named Fruit is a type of flavour whereby at least 95% of it is an extract (for example, a fruit concentrate) and the other 5% are natural flavouring preparations. This can be declared as ‘Natural X Flavouring’
  2. Use Natural flavours; Extracts and/or naturally occurring chemicals obtained by a natural process only can be used. It will be declared as ‘Natural Flavouring’.
  3. You can use an extract; Our extracts are derived from herbs, spices, fruits, vegetables and many other food ingredients. They are simply processed into convenient liquids or powders and are ideal for use in a massive variety of products.
  • Clean label declaration – from the named source ingredients.
  • The provenance of ingredients.
  • High impact at low dosages.
  • Standardised flavour profiles for batch consistency
  • Improved format for handling and storage

To access our Top note flavours and Extracts, email us at sales@plant-ex.com and we will be happy to help!

For more ideas on where to use Plant-Ex products, visit our applications page.

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