Chr. Hansen Upgrades Center For Coloring Foodstuffs In Italy

14 Feb 2014 --- Chr. Hansen has invested in a significant upgrade of its center for coloring foodstuff in Canossa, Italy in order to tap into the growing consumer trend for natural products and foods with simpler ingredients. The investment covers its processing, warehousing and laboratory facilities for food ingredients with coloring properties.

Coloring foodstuffs, processed from edible, natural sources such as fruits and vegetables gives food manufacturers the opportunity to “color food with food” without making compromises on taste and appearance.

“It’s a really exciting move,” explained Carsten Bennike, EVP, Natural Colors Division. “The new facilities will support an assortment of production processes and it will help increase our capacity and expansion abilities, and it also offers better quality and warehousing control. It’s not the final step though – we will be upgrading the plant further over time.”

Bennike explained that there is a lot of interest at the moment in the coloring foodstuff and also the clean label segment. He also highlighted ice cream as one of the growth areas for coloring foodstuffs, but he noted that additionally there has been growth in beverages, confectionery and a variety of other categories. “It is almost as if we are seeing a second wave, which started with a move from synthetics to natural colours,” he said. “Coloring foodstuffs is in demand for the production of many foods, but beverages and ice cream are experiencing the fastest growth.”

Bennike also pointed out that the demand for this started out in Germany and it has since been spreading to lost of other European countries. “This may be due to German regulations,” he said. “They have always had a focus on purity and naturalness there.”

The company has welcomed the new EU Guidance Notes on coloring foodstuffs that was published in December. “We are very happy with that as it creates an even playing field. We are seeing the multinational food companies being more comfortable with coloring foodstuffs. In addition, Spirulina is being recognised now as a coloring foodstuff so we are seeing more interest there.”

Bennike also pointed to the major trend across Europe by consumers for seeking out foods with natural ingredients. “More people are aware about what they eat,” he said. “There are often higher costs involved but in many cases consumers are ready to absorb the cost.”

The upgraded Italian facility will help the company to meet this increased demand and work on new areas, he explained.

“We have been offering coloring foodstuffs as part of our natural colors portfolio for years, but now we have launched a new strategy under the headline Nature’s No. 1 that accentuates the importance of natural solutions in all our business areas. We are pressing ahead full speed developing and launching new natural solutions and our centrally located plant is well equipped for future growth within our popular FruitMax® range and other natural color solutions,” he said.

Chr. Hansen estimates the global market for coloring foodstuffs to be growing rapidly at a rate of 10-15% per year.

by Sonya Hook