FDA Approves Expanded Use of Spirulina Extract in Food & Beverages

14 Apr 2014 --- The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved GNT’s Color Additive Petition (CAP) 2C0297, greatly expanding the use of Spirulina Extract as a natural blue colouring ingredient in food and beverage applications.

While the original regulation [21 CFR 73.530] limited the use of Spirulina Extract to candy and chewing gum, the amended regulation allows for the safe use of Spirulina Extract in: “confections (including candy and chewing gum), frostings, ice cream and frozen desserts, dessert coatings and toppings, beverage mixes and powders, yogurts, custards, puddings, cottage cheese, gelatin, breadcrumbs and ready-to-eat cereals (excluding extruded cereals).”

As a pioneer in natural colour solutions developed exclusively from edible fruits, vegetables and plants, GNT’s notable raw material innovation lead to the early development of a comprehensive natural blue and green colour portfolio using Spirulina. The GNT Group’s Managing Director Dr. Hendrik Hoeck adds: “Many perceive Spirulina as a new colouring product. However, because GNT was the first to develop Spirulina based Colouring Foods over 20 years ago, we not only have the required processing technology and production capacity to deliver our high-quality products across the globe, we also have vast technical expertise to make Spirulina work in a great number of applications”.

GNT’s Spirulina based color solutions have long been used in European food and beverage products. All of GNT’s products are simple concentrates of colourful fruits, vegetables and plants – going through physical processing with water and avoiding the use of chemical or organic solvents or other artificial additives. As such, GNT’s Spirulina based Colouring Foods enjoy worldwide regulatory acceptance due to their innately clean-label pedigree.

GNT Group is the leading global provider of Colouring Foods. The company manufactures colouring concentrates from edible fruits, vegetables and plants using gentle physical methods such as pressing, crushing and filtering. Artificial additives, chemicals or organic solvents are not used. The concentrates are sold under the EXBERRY brand name in more than 65 markets worldwide and are used in a variety of foods, including confectionery and bakery products, dairy products and beverages to name just a few. EXBERRY Colouring Foods provide a wide array of vibrant and stable colour shades. Since they are a natural alternative to additives, they meet the needs of consumers looking for natural and healthy foods. The independent, family-owned GNT Group was founded in 1978 and is the pioneer in the field of Colouring Foods. Today, GNT has global reach with offices in America, Asia and Europe and supplies more than 1,000 food and beverage companies, including seven of the ten biggest producers in the world.