Looks and smell are the primary factors that attract people towards food. These two factors play such a significant role that it can psychologically alter human perception even if the food taste was different from how it was presented. Apart from enhancing the visual appeal of food products, artificial food coloring is also used to protect minerals and vitamins within the food during exposure to sunlight. Artificial or synthetic food colors are manufactured using chemical processes and are most commonly used in food and pharmaceutical industries. Such food coloring is available in powder, liquid, gel, or paste forms. Sunset yellow, tartrazine, carmoisine, erythrosine, Ponceau 4R, and brilliant blue FCF are some of the most commonly used food colors in the food sector. The procurement market intelligence report on global synthetic food color market identifies Europe as one of the largest markets occupying a 34% market share.

Trends in artificial food coloring market

• Today, the consumers increasingly prefer clean-label products which are free of any additives, preservatives, stabilizers, enhancers, and thickeners. Because of such preferences, consumers have prefer natural food coloring over synthetic food colors.
• In the salmon aquaculture sector, the farm-raised salmon lack the pinkish color that is present in wild-salmon. As a result, artificial food colors are used in salmon fish fillets and in pigmenting supplements as a part of fish feed as well.
• Colorful concoctions such as rainbow bagels and unicorn lattes in food products are possible because of innovations in the synthetic food coloring market. For instance, multi-color cereals, Marshmallow Only Lucky Charms launched by General Mills, are becoming increasingly popular among consumers.

Growth drivers in the artificial food coloring market

• One of the largest application areas of artificial food coloring is its use in processed foods such as confectionaries, sausages, soft drinks, baked goods, cereals, and snacks. With the processed food and beverage market estimated to reach US$6 trillion by 2021, it’s a significant growth opportunity.
• Synthetic food colors are preferred over natural food color by manufacturing companies as they are cost-effective and have relatively better heat and moisture resistant properties. Additionally, naturally derived food colors are generally not as concentrated as synthetic food colors.
• Artificial food colors are extensively used in dairy products such as butter and yogurt. It’s a significant growth opportunity for the food coloring market as the dairy industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3% by 2021.

Challenges in the synthetic food coloring market

• Growing health awareness and lifestyle changes in developed regions has resulted in a large number of buyers adopting natural colors over synthetic food colors. As a result, food companies such as Nestlé and General Mills have drastically reduced the use of artificial flavors in their products.
• Synthetic food coloring can sometimes change the properties of the end-product. Buyers have to incur additional costs for additions or alternatives to be implemented in the end-product formulation. Such switching costs can halt the growth of the synthetic food coloring market.
• Petroleum products, aluminum, and coal are the primary raw material used in the production of synthetic food colors. Global demand and supply lead to fluctuations in the price of such raw materials posing problems to procurement teams in the artificial food coloring market.

For more information on the synthetic food coloring market along with supply market insights, pricing models, category management, and supplier selection criteria in SpendEdge’s upcoming report on the global synthetic food color market.

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