Natural food colors
Brown
Just as animals use brown to camouflage themselves and avoid discovery, we often oversee brown and focus on the bright colors that contrast with it. But brown is a grounding and stabilizing color that belongs to hearth and home. We associate it with both nature and the food we eat. Freshly baked bread, coffee, tea, chocolate, cookies, brown sugar, caramel, walnuts, dates and cinnamon and nutmeg are just some of the brown foods we love. Food manufacturers need to pay attention to the color of their products, and it’s just as important to create the perfect brown shade as it is any other color. That’s why Oterra supplies a full range of natural brown food colors.
Skip down the page to learn more about brown
Brown in nature
What brown means to people
The history of brown being used as a color
Brown in food
Why food manufacturers choose Oterra
Brown in nature
Brown in the plant kingdom
The reason a plant turns brown is usually due to the tannins it produces. Tannins are a non-nutritive substance the plant produces that has protective or disease-preventative properties. Tannins can be responsible for the color of brown bark and are involved in the ripening of nuts, together with flavonoids (1). When a plant is active, the chlorophylls that produces its energy is the dominant, masking color. When the chlorophyllis degrades, leaves often turn yellow first due to the carotenoids that have been there all along. But when the leaf truly dies, the tannins seep out of the leaves, creating the brown color (2).
But brown isn’t always the color of death in the plant kingdom. A surprising number of wild plants produce brown flowers. It’s a good strategy to avoid detection of herbivores who don’t see the difference between brown and green. These plants often put their energy into attracting pollinators by their scent. Flies are actually the second most important pollinator after bees to increase flower diversity, and they are attracted to odor (3). Brown flowers can get their color from a combination of, for example, cyanidin on a carotenoid background (4).
Brown in the animal kingdom
Since most mammals are dichromats, they can't distinguish the difference between brown fur and green plants.(5) So whether a plant wants to hide from herbivores, or prey animals want to hide from predators, brown is a clever color regardless of living in the forest, desert or savannah. That may be why most mammals, reptiles and birds are some shade of brown. The brown color comes mainly from melanins. They are tiny granules of color existing in both skin and feathers, and they produce a range of colors from pale yellows to dark black. Feathers with melanin are stronger and more resistant to wear, so many all-white birds have black feathers on their wings or wingtips (6).
There are two main forms of melanin: 1) eumelanin which typically produces black and greyish tones and 2) phaeomelanins which produce the yellows, reds and browns, including red hair in people and the tawny color of big cats and giraffes (7).
The natural world
From space, the Earth looks blue and green. But the top layer of “God’s green earth” is largely made up of soil in various shades of brown. Much of the color of soil comes from the minerals it contains, and that’s one of the reasons some soil is yellowish or reddish. But in general, the darker the color the richer the soil. The dark brown color comes from decomposing organic matter. Brown rivers and streams are carrying a lot of soil. While it’s all dirt, it certainly has many names: dirt, soil, mud, clay, umber, silt, sand and even rocks, which will eventually become dirt!
Deeper below the earth's surface, one finds chocolate diamonds, which make up about 15% of any given diamond mine’s production. Less reflective than other types of diamonds, they are mainly used for industrial purposes. Smoky quartz has a translucent brownish “smoke” color. In the 1100’s, flat lens of smoky quartz were used in China. They looked like sunglasses but instead of hiding from the sun, they were used by judges at trials to hide their expression (8). Axinite is another rare mineral in a rich clove-brown color.
The meaning of brown
Universal associations with brown
In a modern context, brown is a color of dependability and comfort. It’s an honest color of the earth and gives us warm and settled feelings associated with honesty, support and protection. Brown reminds us of connections to family, home and nature. It’s also a color of contemplation, as in winter being a dormant time after the glory of autumn and before the anticipated colors of spring. It serves as a neutral background for our vibrant thoughts and ideas.
Brown is also associated with death as in the end of the year, short days and absence of life-bringing sunlight. In older times, though, brown had completely different meanings, and most of them were negative. That was reflected in a 2020 study of over 4,500 people in 30 countries. When presented with the color "brown," the most often associated emotion was “disgust,” at 36% (9).
Brown was the color of poverty
In Ancient Rome, the term for a poor urban person was “pullati,” literally meaning “those dressed in brown.” In the Middle Ages, brown-colored clothing was still a symbol of the commoner, as combining freely available plants like woad and madder dyed cloth grey or brown. A 1363 statute in England required lowly, working-class citizens to wear russet, a coarse woolen cloth dyed grey or brown. In the Middle Ages, Franciscan monks wore brown robes as a symbol of their modest lifestyle, as in this Rembrandt entitled “A Franciscan Friar,” from public domain via Wikimedia Commons (10).
Brown in the military
In the mid-1800’s, the Indian soldiers in British India began wearing a light brown color, which became known as “khaki” from the Urdu language for "the color of dust." It was adopted by the British Army in 1867 and by the United States Army in 1896. In the 1920’s it became the uniform color of the Nazi Party in Germany, mainly because it was cheap to buy brown war-surplus uniforms from Germany’s former colonial forces in Africa. Nazi paramilitary members were known as “brownshirts.” The national headquarters was called the “Brown House,” and Nazi seizure of power in 1933 was called the “brown revolution.” (11)
Brown for people
Most people in the world have eyes and skin that are shades of brown. Brown eye and skin color comes from a high concentration of melanin. It’s thought that humans have evolved to have melanin in our skin to protect it against damage caused by ultraviolet radiation, although it probably didn't hurt that it was also good camouflage from predatory animals.
Brown is the second most common color of hair, after black. Hair color comes from high levels of a natural dark pigment called eumelanin and lower levels of the pale pigment called pheomelanin. Brown eumelanin is more common in Europeans and black eumelanin is more common in the rest of the world (11).
Leaving brown Kansas
The beginning and ending scenes set in Kansas in the The Wizard of Oz (1939) were shot in black and white film which was then sepia-toned, as in this CBS publicity shot which is now public domain via Wikimedia Commons. Then as the story goes, Dorothy opens her farmhouse door and looks out into the Land of Oz which is in brilliant technicolor. The scene was filmed in a single, technicolor tracking shot. To achieve this, Dorothy’s body double and the interior of the farmhouse were hand-painted sepia, so we can see Dorothy opening the farmhouse door to reveal the colorful world of Oz. It was absolutely magical to an audience that had no experience with special effects (12).
The no-nonsense revival of brown
In the late 1800’s, luxurious Pullman sleeper cars were brown. In 1901 the United Parcel Service chose a shade of brown for their company vehicles, both to evoke the associations of Pullman but also as a symbol of ruggedness and reliability. From the late 1900’s brown became associated with simplicity, nature and health. Bag lunches were carried in plain brown bags. Brown bread and sugar were considered healthier than their refined white counterparts (10). In the 2000’s the once “lowly” brown became associated with resourcefulness and the natural world, becoming an important symbol in the modern world to help push forward ethical environmental change (9).
Cultural differences regarding brown
A typically overlooked color, brown is also often absent from color studies. But in western Europe and North America it's associated with the words “earthy” and “reliable.” In Native American cultures it is associated with “wisdom,” and in China it is associated with “earthy.” (13)
Even with the recent rehabilitation of brown, public opinion surveys in Europe and the United States still show brown as the least favorite color, often associated with plainness, the rustic, feces and poverty. Secondary perceptions are positive, however and bring associations including baking, warmth, wildlife and autumn (11).
Food associations with colors are often different than general perceptions, and brown is a prime example of this. Baked bread, chocolate, coffee and many other well-loved foods are brown.
The language of brown
Here are some idioms using the color brown: (11, 14, 15)
To be browned off
Means that you are annoyed by something or someone.
Brown bagger
Someone who bring their own packed lunch (e.g., in a brown paper bag) to work or school. It has connotations of someone on a budget or dedicated to a special dietary regime so they don’t want to eat what everyone else eats.
Brown energy
Energy derived from traditional resources such as coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power which are seen by some as environmentally unfriendly.
Brown out
A partial loss of power that is less severe than a blackout. A partial loss of consciousness. Latinos being under-represented in the entertainment industry.
Brown thumb
The inability or lack of skill in gardening or growing plants. Derived from “green thumb,” which means the opposite.
Brown nose
A verb which means to flatter insincerely. It is a description of the visual metaphor of kissing the boss’ posterior in order to gain advancement.
To run the brown
A kayaking term that refers to embracing the muddy brown water in a river after a rainstorm.
To cost a brown
A "brown" refers to a 100 dollar Canadian bill.
To brown or be browned
To act unpleasantly or be treated unpleasantly, usually in the context of work.
The history of brown pigments and dyes
The rich brown earth Not surprisingly, the earth is a bountiful source of brown colors. Umber, a natural clay pigment made of iron oxide and manganese oxide, was used in cave paintings dated to 40,000 BC. By the Renaissance, artists were using five different browns: 1) raw umber which at that time came from the earth near Umbria, Italy 2) raw sienna, a reddish-brown earth mined near Sienna in Tuscany, France 3) burnt umber, the Umbrian clay heated until it turned a darker shade, 4) burnt sienna, which was sienna heated until it turned a dark reddish brown and 5) Cologne earth or Cassel earth, originally from what is now known as Germany, was a natural pigment made up of mainly decayed vegetal matter. It was also called Van Dyck brown after the famous painter Anthony van Dyck, but it fell out of favor when it became evident that it was unstable and unreliable. The name Van Dyck brown is still used though, for modern synthetic paints.(9)
Brown from the sea Another ancient source of brown is sepia, which comes from the ink sac of a species of cuttlefish. The fish’ diet creates subtle differences in sepia shades. Sepia was used by the ancient Romans and also by a very famous Renaissance artist, Leonardo da Vinci, for sepia-toned color washes.(9)
Caput mortum A third source of brown pigments originates from the medieval period when the remains of mummies were believed to have medical powers and therefore ground up. The rich consistency of the powder was used to create paint starting in the 1500’s by combining it with Myrrh and white pitch. It was known as “Mummy Brown” or “caput mortuum,” and its transparency meant that it was especially good for shading and coloring natural flesh and hair tones. It stopped as a popular source of brown in the late 1800’s both because it became expensive and because artists realized how it was made.(9)
Brown dyes Dyes from plants once again have proven to be a timeless and renewable source of color. Walnuts have been used to make brown dye far longer than we have records of it, but there are written accounts by the Romans in first century BC of the Gauls using walnuts to dye wool brown or make a reddish dye for their hair. The chestnut tree was another source of brown, and the bark, leaves and nut husks have all been used for dye. The leaves produce a yellowish-beige dye, while the wood produces a warm light brown (10, 16).
Brown in food
When companies use brown in their packaging, they may be targeting an consumer group that is tuned into environmental issues and who want to lessen their environmental footprint.
But brown is also a color of many of the flavors we love. We connect brown with coffee, warm spices like gingerbread or pumpkin pie, chocolate, maple syrup, molasses, dates, a perfectly roasted turkey, mushrooms, pretzels, potatoes, brown lentils, beans, nuts, freshly baked bread, and so much more that all gives us nutrition, comfort and delight. Brown packaging is extremely common for coffee, tea, chocolate, ale, alcohol, and caramel.
In a 2014 study, brown was mostly associated with the tastes of “sweet” and “umami,” as opposed to “sour,” “bitter,” or “salty.” (17) Worlwide, caramel tends to be most common flavor associated with brown (18).
Natural brown food coloring: the Oterra difference
Synthetic colors One of the most common artificial brown food colors today is one product with many names, including Chocolate Brown HT, Food Brown 3 (USDA), E155 (EU) and C.I. 20285. It’s a synthetic coal tar diazo dye and is often used in chocolate cakes, but also milk, cheese, yogurt, jams, fruit products, fish and more. Brown as a food color can also be created by blending artificial colors like orange and black, or sometimes red, yellow and blue.
Taking the natural color route At Oterra, we believe that nature got it right, so we offer a range of natural brown food colors to the food industry. Heating the natural sugars in food produces some of the umami flavors we love best like caramelized onions. Controlling the process of heating sugar produces caramel, but it also produces a natural brown color. Other sources of brown natural food colors are malt and apple. Our apple range, called Simply Brown, uses the gentlest processing techniques to produce a clean label brown.
Many roads to brown Brown is a composite color, so there are many ways to achieve brown with blends. Here a few options to consider: Jagua fruit + beta carotene Black carrot + beta carotene + paprika Red beet + spirulina + turmeric
From left to right, this cake is colored with FD&C Yellow #5/Red #40/Blue #1 (tartrazine/allure red/brilliant blue), clean label caramelized sugar, clean label apple.
From left to right, this extruded cereal is colored with FD&C Yellow #5/Red #40/Blue #1 (tartrazine/allure red/brilliant blue), clean label apple, black carrot/turmeric, clean label caramelized sugar.
Why choose Oterra's natural brown food colors?
Safe
With our Good Manufacturing Practices, you can rest assured our natural food colors meet various requirements and regulations on food coloring. And when it comes to research about health, natural colors win hands down over artificial counterparts.
Superior Quality
No matter your formulation requirement, you can rely on our colors to provide the exact same shade regardless of harvest or production batch. We’ll also help you with color matching to achieve the precise color you’re looking for.
Consistent supply
You don’t need to buy once a year according to the harvest calendar. We produce colors year-round and work hard to ensure they arrive at your door when you need them, both for lab samples, production pilots and production year after year.
Fair prices
We harvest and process pigments from mainly plants, and then carefully formulate them for maximum ease-of-use and shelf life. Color ingredients are a tiny percentage of your cost matrix, so the value of spending more on natural vs. artificial is well worth it.
Unrivaled expertise
We’ll help you develop products with the right shade and sensory qualities that avoid ingredients on your “no” list. And we’ll still be there to assist when you reformulate. There’s a reason we have expertise centers worldwide and the broadest color portfolio in the industry.
Unique innovation
We have a long history of product innovation for the best-performing natural food colors. But there’s more. By solving today’s challenges with solutions for the future, we drive the right kind of change that will ethically lead to innovation we can all be proud of.
Partnership mentality
Your food manufacturing environment is unique. You need a partner who cares about your efficiency and quality as much as you do. And who cares about their own responsible manufacturing and product quality since it becomes part of yours. We do.
Regulatory expertise
Rely on our documentation and certifications to meet your standards and inform your ingredients label development. Our global knowledge of the regulations that can influence your color choice make us your ideal partner whether you produce for home or abroad.
Responsible & sustainable
We were collaborating with farmers for better harvests and worker conditions, as well as cutting use of water and electricity in our factories before anyone required reporting. As a member of the UN global compact with ambitious SBTi-aligned targets, we’re still doing it.
Customizable
We understand that your product development and manufacturing environment is unique, and that's why Oterra offers customizable solutions. We'll help you achieve the shade you need in the right formulation to suit your products’ brand identity.
Organic
If your consumers want organic, look no further than to our range of organic natural food colors, accredited in US and EU. And if they’re looking for kosher, halal, non-GMO, plant-based or even approved for pets, we have that too.
Clean label
We’re with you on a journey together towards natural. How fast you travel depends on your consumers. So if you’re looking for clean label or simply to avoid artificial colors and additives, we’re here to help. Because we believe nature got it.
Discover the universe of natural brown colors with Oterra
If you’re looking to replace artificial food colors with natural food colors, and thereby achieve cleaner, more transparent labels, take advantage of our long experience in the industry to help guide your process. We can also help you optimize your production or work towards a specific color match.
Your consumers are asking for more natural ingredients in the food you produce. Natural food colors are a step in the right direction as we move together on the journey towards natural.
Reach out today to learn more about our natural brown food colors and how we can support your food production.
1. Tannins are in tree bark and nuts.
2. Tannin in leaves.
3. Flies are the second most important pollinator.
4. Pigments responsible for brown flowers.
5. Most mammals are color blind
6. Melanin makes feathers stronger.
7. Forms of melanin.
8. Smokey quartz glasses.
9. Universal emotions about brown.
10. A history of brown.
11. A collection of brown information.
12. Sepia-toned motion pictures.
13. Cultural differences about the meaning of brown.
14. Brown idioms.
15. More brown idioms.
16. Natural dyes.
17. Brown associated with the tastes sweet and umami.
18. Caramel is flavor most associated with brown.
