Consumers expect that plant-based meat be so similar and natural as for real meat, but we know they are not. However, we are in pursuit of this goal, and the color could be yours ally in the search for customer satisfaction, and that's what we're here to talk about in today's content.
To help us with this information, we had the opportunity to talk to the Paulo Rogerio da Silva, regional manager of applications from the Natural Dyes Division from the Oterra.
Check out this reading we prepared for you!
Color is synonymous with quality in the food industry
After all, as the color can help you make your product more appetizing, more attractive to the consumer, speaking especially of this person who is replacing to the proteins of animal origin put proteins of plant origin?
The answer is right here here! Talking about the influence of color on plant-based universe, we know that color has a very heavy weight in the choice of consumer at the time of making the buy.
She has a intrinsic relationship very strong with the perception of quality of a product food, contributing both to the moment of buy how much of repurchase. And when we are talking about analogous meat this is no different.
This is a category that demands a lot experimentation by the person who consumes or aims to consume a product to plant-based and, in general terms, the analogous meat can be a news to many of them.
In this sense, when the potential consumers are in this phase of experimentation, if you have a product that looks more similar to meat, certainly he will come out ahead on the shelves.
According to the expert, it is believed that the players that surprise the market bringing the part sensory closest to the real will be the ones who will have the most success node market.
To achieve this goal so decisive, the food industry has been investing more and more in innovations that meet this demanding public. And he is in search of color, flavor and texture as similar as possible to the meat of animal origin.
He longs for, when you consume vegetable meat, a substitute for that of animal origin. That is, if he is going to taste a barbecue burger, he wants to have the same sensation as if I were tasting a conventional product.
However, the two are still very different and ours challenge is to achieve to bring for the plant-based universe more and more this similarity. That's what the consumer he wants find!
Let's talk about natural dyes?
When we talk about the universe of vegetable meats, you natural dyes are seen as essential. One plant-based burger, for example, when receives this kind of dye becomes apparently much closer of the product of animal origin.
However, the consumer not want to find in this plant-based meat artificial dye and if this is in the label, he will certainly be the last option purchase in refrigerators of supermarket.
So, it makes perfect sense that you use it in plant-based meat products with natural ingredients.
What are the sources and where are these natural dyes extracted from?
For the production from the analogous meat, we will need dyes with the red, yellow, orange tones and brown and we generally use a mixture of the three to get to hue expected.
AND we found these colors, mainly, in turmeric, safflower, carrot, annatto, paprika, beetroot, radish, sweet potato, black carrot, malt extract and in the caramelized sugar.
Through the composition of these items we arrive at ideal color, using only natural ingredients, the way the consumer expects.
However, that is a little longer ago in the plant-based industry have you ever heard that anthocyanins, in general, are used in more acidic applications. But when you start walking towards a More neutral pH, the anthocyanin go to change the product shade.
It is possible to perceive a tone pinkish with a background violet. In this context, the beet, which has a pinkish hue, presents a yellow background, and the betanin present in the plant has a particular characteristic of being resistant to heat treatment. In other applications this could be a disadvantage, but for the analogous meat this is a advantage of good. The pinkish has the appearance of crude and the brown, when the vegetable meat and roasted, has exactly the tone of cooked.
And that's it color change that the consumer expects after a cooked meat and in most of the burgers you find in supermarket, the beet and successfully applied as natural dye.
It is worth noting that the pigment color changes completely according to the base of yours product. One hue that you achieve with a soy burger is not the same as a pea burger.
So, your company needs to pay attention and a lot, according to Paulo, with the base that you will choose for your product. The base is very important for the choice of the natural dyes ideals.
To conclude this reading, it is worth highlighting that food industry is still walking to produce analogous meats that provide the same experience of those of animal origin.
The choice of correct natural dyes is an important step towards this, since we know that the color of the food is synonymous of quality from the point of view of consumer.
Those companies that invest in innovationss in this sense and be well informed is a smart choiceand when the subject is us deepen node plant-based universe.
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