Understanding Different Types of Food Coloring

Different types of food coloring are used in today’s competitive marketplace. You can find various types of food coloring available in the market today, but traditional powder and oil-based food coloring are the most popular and widely used in food and beverage items. However, both types of food coloring have their pros and cons and provide different colors and hues to food products. 

Understanding different types of food coloring and their importance is crucial to making sure you’re using the right food coloring or food color additives for your food & beverage products. It’s essential to understand how to use food coloring in the right amount if you’re planning to decorate icings, candies, and other sweet treats for a loved one or add the finishing touches to your holiday cookies. 

The majority of chefs use liquid coloring for cooking, but other options exist, each with its own benefits. All right! If you are a business wondering about the different types of food coloring available in the market, then you have come to the right place. 

In this quick guide, we will walk you through the basic understanding of various types of food coloring, food colors, or food colorants used in the market. 

So, let’s dive right in!

Understanding Different Types of Food Coloring

Here is everything you need to know about different types of food coloring:

Liquid Food Coloring

This type of food coloring are most cost-efficient mostly found in grocery stores and supermarkets. However, these food colorings typically are less concentrated than you can ever see. Water-based and synthetic coloring is used in low concentrations to formulate liquid food coloring. 

The base should be dyed quite heavily with food coloring or food colorants if you want vibrant, rich, or dark colors. As a result, your texture will become thinner and you may experience some issues with drying and color bleeding. It can be your go-to choice if you’re using other liquid mediums such as syrup, water, or alcohol or if you’re trying to achieve pastel colors with your icing or batter. 

Gel Food Coloring

Gel food coloring are highly concentrated food colors or food colorants often found in gel-like consistency. These gel food coloring or food colorants are often come in a thick liquid and quite firm based on the company and the brand. Both food colorings are perfect for use in cakes, pastries, icings, frostings, pastries, and other confectionery items. 

To use; you just need a little drop or use a toothpick to scoop the gel color and put it into your frosting to mix. When using gel color; you tend to use less e.g. a few drops, as opposed to the others – the powder color or the liquid color. Especially for cake decorators who use fondant icing, this is an effective food color or food colorants to use.

Oil Based Food Coloring

Both natural & synthetic dyes are used to dissolve in vegetable oil or alcohol to make oil-based food colors or colorants. Other food coloring brands often tend to be more intense and brighter since they use pigments. In general, these colors are highly expensive, but their hues are brighter & more intense. 

The texture of most foods is smoother because they do not fade as quickly as powder colors. However, it can be difficult to mix oil-based food coloring correctly.

Powdered Food Coloring

Powdered food coloring is one of the most commonly used food coloring or food colors for a comprehensive range of applications. These are food colorings with no water & come in different-sized containers in a powdered form. You need to add a little bit of water or use a food glycerin to make the mixture like a gel or paste consistency, making it fully concentrated more effectively. 

Using powdered food color in frosting or fondant can result in bitter flavors, so it’s important not to use it in overdose. In addition, excessive use of food coloring can ultimately result in the frosting or product becoming bitter due to the preservative it contains inside it.

It is also recommended that you add glycerin or water to the color to ensure smooth functioning and operation in the long run. It is easy to find powdered food colors or custom food colorants based on your specific business needs 

Conclusion

All types of food coloring have been specifically designed to provide better, brighter, and lighter stability, imparting colors better than other natural food colorings in the food & beverage industry. Are you a business in need of different types of food coloring or food colorants that offer more vibrant and attractive food colorants, look no further than Hridhan Chem. 

Hridhan Chem is a leading manufacturer and exporter of premium quality food colors or food colorants looking to seek top-notch food colors for their food & beverage industry. At Hridhan Chem, we manufacture high-quality food colors or colorants that are of top quality offer 100% purity, and are certified under the USFDA’s stringent rules and regulations.