NEWS IN BRIEF

Color trend alert: Red to reinvigorate food and beverage category in 2021

By Mary Ellen Shoup

- Last updated on GMT

©GettyImages / AnastasiaNurullina
©GettyImages / AnastasiaNurullina
Red is set to become a trending color in the food and beverage industry heading into 2021 as the shade can help signal the "start of a new era," says EXBERRY Coloring Foods supplier GNT Group.

GNT Group, which runs a 'Love Color with EXBERRY campaign'​ ​each year, said red is rising in popularity and fueling food and beverage innovation in 2021. 

“Red was the natural choice for our new Love Color with EXBERRY campaign. It epitomizes human vitality, creating energy, passion and positive action, and brings real excitement to food and drink products. Red is well known for its ability to command instant attention and it’s a color you won’t be able to ignore in 2021,”​ Maartje Hendrickx, GNT’s market development manager, said in an announcement

GNT predicts that consumers seeking out a sense of excitement and discovery will gravitate to more food and beverage products featuring the vibrant hue.

An iconic color in the cosmetics, beauty, fashion, film, and design industries, red is often associated with "sporting dominance"​ and signifies power and energy, said GNT, which manufactures a range of red EXBERRY Coloring Foods made from ingredients such as radish, carrot, sweet potato, hibiscus and berries including elderberry and chokeberry (declared as “fruit and/or vegetable juice (color)” or “beetroot extract (color)”, depending on the specific EXBERRY product).

In line with the red color trend, the company recently expanded its EXBERRY micronized colorings line with the launch of beetroot- and carrot-based Fiesta Pink color​ for use in food and beverage products. 

GNT’s red shades are made using physical manufacturing processes without the use of chemical solvents, and as a result, can provide a clean-label replacement for colorants such as the azo dye Allura Red AC (FD&C Red 40) ​and carmine. GNT further explained that it controls the entire EXBERRY supply chain from cultivation of the fruits and vegetables, which are grown by the company's select group of farmers, to harvesting monitored by GNT agricultural engineers. Once harvested, fruits and vegetables undergo "gentle, physical processes"​​ such as pressing, chopping, filtering, and concentrating to create EXBERRY's line of coloring ingredients.