FDA Approves A New Natural Blue Pigment, Amilestone Breakthrough In The History Of Food And Beverage Industry

FDA Approves A New Natural Blue Pigment, Amilestone Breakthrough In The History Of Food And Beverage Industry

On September 2, 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the identity of the water extract of Clitoria ternata as a natural blue pigment additive, which is a plant native to Southeast Asia. It is reported that the declared enterprise is Sensent Colors (LLC), a subsidiary of SensientTechnologies in the United States. The company stated that the approval of this regulation is an important milestone in the food industry, filling an important gap in the natural pigment series, especially natural blue pigments.

In 2018, Sen Xin submitted her application for the blue pigment from butterfly tofu pudding flowers to the US FDA for the first time. After a number of safety assessments and toxicological considerations, the FDA recently announced that it could be used as a natural blue pigment, which took three years from submission to approval. This natural blue pigment can be used in a wide range of end product applications, provided that the amount of tofu pudding extract does not exceed the level consistent with Good manufacturing practice.

The approved application scope includes:

(1) Alcoholic beverages (spirits, liqueurs, and flavored alcoholic beverages);

(2) Non alcoholic beverages (sports and Energy drink, flavored or Carbonated water, fruit drinks (including smoothies and cereal drinks), carbonated soft drinks (fruit flavor or fruit juice, Ginger ale), nutritional drinks, fruit and Vegetable juice, tea);

(3) Chewing gum;

(4) Coated nuts;

(5) Liquid coffee creamer (dairy and non dairy products);

(6) Ice cream and frozen dairy desserts; (7) Dairy and non dairy beverages; (8) Hard and soft candy;

(9) Fruit products in yogurt.

This rule shall come into effect on October 5, 2021, and further information regarding the submission of objections shall be submitted electronically or in writing by October 4, 2021.

↓ Food and beverage milestone "breakthrough point"

This time, the approval of FDA regulations in the United States is considered a "milestone" breakthrough point, as the approval of pigment additives, like "rare birds," does not occur frequently. Although the company has been providing blue as Vegetable juice to a few customers, this time the blue pigment additive was officially approved by FDA, which will increase confidence for large and well-known food and beverage companies to use it.

Generally speaking, the approval of new natural pigments is very troublesome and time-consuming. It took three years for the butterfly pea tofu pudding extract to be a natural blue pigment. This is unfavorable for the entire industry, as it will slow down the time for many new pigments to enter the market. However, there are also times when the approval speed is quite fast.

At the end of 2018, Impossible Foods of the United States submitted an application for a pigment additive, that is, soybean hemoglobin can be used as a pigment additive, which is mainly used in plant hamburgers to produce meat like effects. A few months later, that is

In July 2019, the FDA approved the application with lightning speed. This may be because the FDA has reviewed most of the data on the same ingredients in the company's GRAS notification, so the entire approval process is fast.

↓ Enterprise promotion application for "natural blue pigment"

Natural blue pigment is a very rare component that can be used as a blue background or as a building block to combine with other natural pigments to form natural green and purple colors. The existing natural blue pigments mainly come from the following sources: spirulina extract, gardenia blue, Huito fruit, and Mars is developing the natural blue from red Cabbage.

Three natural blue pigments that are being applied for by the FDA:

1) Huito Fruit

According to the list of pigment additive applications being reviewed by the FDA, Ecoflora SAS recently submitted a pigment additive application form requesting the extraction of a natural blue color from Jagua (a tropical fruit also known as Huito) for use in various food varieties.

2) Gardenia blue

A petition submitted by Gardenia Blue Interest Group is also being approved to ensure that the natural blue color of the gardenia fruit source is approved.

3) Recently, a third petition has also been submitted, and Fermentalg has submitted a natural blue algal source called Galdieria sulfuraria to the US FDA, which can be applied in various foods.

At present, only the spirulina extract (2013) and butterfly pea tofu pudding extract (2021) are allowed to use natural blue pigments approved by the US FDA. In 2013, the US FDA approved spirulina extract as a blue pigment for candy and chewing gum. In 2014, the application scope of spirulina extract was expanded, including ice cream, frozen desserts, beverage mixtures and powders, yogurt, cream, pudding, cheese, gelatin, Bread crumbs, ready to eat cereals, etc. In contrast, its thermal stability is not as stable as the pigment from butterfly pea tofu pudding extract, and its application in high moisture products such as beverages is not very good.

↓ Butterfly tofu pudding, a new generation of "plastic" natural blue pigment

Butterfly tofu pudding is a popular food in Southeast Asia, and it has also earned a lot of attention on social networking platform websites in the past two years. Butterfly tofu pudding, also known as Blue Butterfly, is a natural antioxidant plant, which is rich in vitamins A, C and E. People in Southeast Asian countries often use dried flowers to make tea, and the tea is blue. This is because butterfly tofu pudding contains a large amount of natural Anthocyanidin, which can be used as a natural food dye or cocktail. This pigment is commonly used in Southeast Asia to make blue cakes.

The blue pigment launched by Senxin has good applicability and stability. For example, in products with pH values above 3.8, this water-soluble color will present an incredibly vibrant denim blue, with a color closer to the synthesized FD&C Blue No. 2 (also known as "indigo") rather than FD&C Blue No. 1 (also known as bright blue). In products with lower pH values, such as Sports drink, purple tones will appear. In low pH drinks, especially Sports drink, or many soft drinks, even alcoholic drinks, it will be beautiful dark purple. Within the neutral pH range, its color will present another hue.

In some applications, this pigment is also a pure and transparent bright purple, even better than some synthetic pigments. No precipitation or anything else can be seen within the pH range. It is light stable and is also a legally available heat stable blue pigment on the market. Coupled with things like turmeric, it can form a beautiful dark green color. The butterfly pea tofu pudding extract is a dark blue liquid, which is made from the water extract of dried butterfly tofu pudding. After ultrafiltration, the residues of plant products are removed, and then concentrated and pasteurized.

↓ Continuous supply chain capability

For raw material manufacturers, brand manufacturers value not only high-quality clinical scientific data raw materials, but more importantly, whether the raw materials can be "sustainable" supplied to meet the long-term supply of market consumers. Although it is not difficult to plant butterfly tofu pudding, it is "not a large-scale commercial crop". Based on this situation, Senxin Company has collaborated with farmers at the source to ensure the supply and development of higher yield plants.

At present, the company is building a supply chain to prepare it for large-scale food manufacturers to use as pigments. After extracting petals from Southeast Asia, they will be extracted and processed in factory facilities in Europe. In addition, Butterfly tofu pudding is also a project of the company's agronomy team for many years. It has been collecting the largest genome of Butterfly tofu pudding. Direct cooperation with farmers can provide them with high-quality flower seeds, and then there are many cooperation in processing.

↓ Fermentation, a new way to source pigments in the future

The FDA's final regulations on the application for this pigment additive explain that Senxin Company has provided scientific literature data, along with 28 and 90 day rat studies, multiple in vitro trials, and human clinical research data on anthocyanins including delphinium pigment. The data indicates that although it contains some proteins, they are highly unlikely to become allergens.

When asked if there will be more natural pigments extracted from plants through microbial fermentation in the future, David Rigg, the global marketing director of Senxin, said that this is an area that Senxin is very familiar with and is currently engaged in dialogue with many stakeholders to actively participate in research and investment in this area. Therefore, this is a constantly developing field, although there are still some challenges in making it commercially viable.

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