Name: Oterra | High Quality, Safe Natural Food Colors
Brand: Oterra

Materials

We select the finest from nature to create the fullest possible palette of appealing shades. Our natural food colors answer the demand for food that's safe to eat with quality ingredients that can be trusted. Scroll through our large selection of food colors below. Under each raw material you’ll find stability information, as well as the many shades it can produce. All our colors are customizable and we offer color matching as well, if you’re looking to change your food color supplier.


Visual appeal continues to be one of the main drivers of innovation – and the desire to share. While vibrant food colors are increasingly popular, consumers also expect formulations to remain natural and clean labelled.

Our in-depth understanding of how to apply natural colors to a wide range of bakery and cereal applications gives us the ability to offer technical service and support to quickly match changing industry requirements.

Use our clean label, cost-effective food colors in your production. Produce bakery and cereals with the best natural ingredients from Oterra.

Oterra | The Best Natural Food Colors for Bakery and Cereals

If base color, high heat, high fat content, or high or low pH levels play a role in your formulation or production process, we can help you find the shade and formulation you need for a truly appetizing result.

And we’re always on-hand to support you with expert guidance and technical advice, from product development and production to stable color throughout your product’s shelf life.

Bakery and cereals

The beverage industry is very dynamic, and consumers are constantly on the lookout for the next innovation. But they still want to know what’s in the beverages they drink, and it’s important that they contain natural colors and are free from artificial ingredients. 

Pale shades can highlight the naturality of your product, while bright and bold colors can help your products stand out from the crowd. Read about our many different beverage applications and how we can help you achieve exactly the result you want.

We offer natural food coloring for drinks as powders, liquids, oil-soluble or water-soluble. If you need natural food color, you can get it from Oterra. 

Oterra | Best Food Coloring Options for Beverages

Flavor, type of fortification, pH level, production processes and packaging all matter when formulating your beverage application. Our recommended natural food colors for beverages are thoroughly tested to deliver maximum performance.

Whether you’re converting to natural, launching a functional assortment, or looking for a stand-out new shade to match your latest flavor, we can help you achieve all-out appeal.

Beverage

Color is a key feature of candy and gum products. As constant innovation is a must, natural food colors can be the differentiator you need to take your colored candy to the next level.

We can help you uncover new opportunities and develop exciting, bright candy that hits the sweet spot and appeals to consumers everywhere. 

Heat, processing time, water activity and pH levels are just some of the parameters that affect the performance of natural colors. Regardless, color is the ultimate sweet spot for confectionery, whether it’s light, bright or something in-between.
As candy is a hit with kids of all ages, parents are looking for confectionery that’s naturally colored and contains safe ingredients. We’re here to help you achieve striking, fun colors that draw the eye, as well as food coloring that surprises and delights.

Confectionery

The dairy industry is a front runner in clean label, as consumers look for natural ingredients and labels they can relate to and understand. 

Our natural colors and coloring foods are available in a range of solutions that are stable in a range of process conditions, and in an appealing palette of shades to match your flavor. 

Get appealing shades of food colors for your production. We have used annatto extract since 1876 and are the leading provider of great, clean colors.

Oterra | Strong, High-Performance Natural Food Colors

Factors such as flavor, formulation, heat, light, pH level, and the base color of your ingredients can influence the final color of fruit preparations, and dairy-based or plant-based applications.  

When you partner with us, you can draw on our deep clean label color know-how to ensure the most stable, stunning result, minimal transfer, and resilient performance in everything from tasty cheeses and probiotic yoghurts to exotic fruit preparations and the coolest dairy or plant-based frozen desserts.  

Dairy, fruit preparations and ice cream

Highly diverse and with frequent product launches, it takes speed, flexibility, and great ideas to keep your meat and savory innovation progressing. We provide technical service and support to quickly match changing industry and consumer needs.

Get clean label, high-performing food colors for meat and savory food production. Order natural colors for natural food and improve your product.

Oterra | Get Oterra Food Coloring for the Best Color Pay-off

Processing, the type and amount of fat and protein, interaction with other ingredients, as well as packaging and storage conditions impact the final color of savory, meat, and meat analogue applications.  

No matter what your formulation, production process, or shelf-life requirements, our natural food colors can help intensify the color of your product and give it a fresh, bright and uniform appearance.  

Savory & Meat

Native to the Middle East, safflower is primarily grown for its oil content and tea. It’s mainly cultivated in China and India, but only China produces a variety that’s suitable for the food color industry. It has good heat and light stability and is unaffected by pH.

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Safflower

Native to Mexico, marigold is grown almost everywhere in the world. They’re one of the earliest cultivated flowers and are used for cooking, medicinal purposes, and as decoration for rites and rituals in South Asia. It displays good light, heat, and pH stability,.

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Marigold

Turmeric is a member of the ginger family. Native to India, turmeric is used as a food condiment and color, as well as a dye and medicine. There are many different varieties, but only Curcuma longa L is used for color and botanicals. It’s very tolerant of heat and pH extremes.  

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Turmeric

The orange carrots used in the food color industry contain a very high level of pigment and are bred specifically for their color. The bright orange root is pressed to make juice concentrate, then pasteurized. It has good heat and light stability and is unaffected by pH. 

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Orange carrot

Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil that comes from the reddish fruit pulp of the oil palm tree. Oterra only purchases palm oil from approved Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil suppliers. It has good heat and light stability and is unaffected by pH. 

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Palm fruit

Fungus carotene is obtained by a fermentation process using two natural strains of the Blakeslea trispora fungus. It displays good heat and light stability and is unaffected by pH. 

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Fungus carotene

Paprika is native to the tropical regions of North and South America, where it was domesticated over 5000 years ago. It’s now grown widely throughout Spain, Africa, China, the United States, and the Indian subcontinent. It has good light stability and is unaffected by pH.

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Paprika

Consumer demand continues to be strong for natural, simple ingredients in pet food. Our naturally sourced, food-grade coloring ingredients can help to subtly differentiate your product, creating a premium appearance that complements your product’s flavor and mirrors the same rich color palette of the human diet and our own favorite foods.

The raw materials we use are extracted from natural sources such as fruits, vegetables, edible plants and cochineal. All ingredients in our product range are human grade and pet food compliant for cats and dogs. They meet the highest quality and regulatory standards. 

From dry to wet pet food production, Oterra offers a wide range of safe pet food colors. Improve your production with better natural alternatives. Contact Oterra.

Oterra | Natural, Pet Safe Food Coloring

Pairing your healthy, nutritious pet food with appealing colors from nature is the way to win over pet owners, and their pets.

Our natural coloring ingredients for pet food are formulated to withstand the most demanding processing methods like high heat for the best color performance – and the range is fully compliant and approved for human consumption. And if you’re looking for support to customize new or existing products, we can help troubleshoot any technical challenge.

Pet food

Annatto comes from the seeds of the achiote tree, Bixa Orellana. Indigenous to South America and Africa, annatto is used to flavor and color savory dishes. It displays good heat and light stability and binds to protein, which increases stability. 

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Annatto

Carmine is extracted from the shell of the dried female cochineal insect, Dactilopius coccus costa. Native to South America, cochineal feed on cacti (Opuntia ficus-indica) and have traditionally been used to dye food, textiles and as body paint. It displays good heat and light stability.

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Cochineal

The sweet potato is native to South America, where it has been cultivated for more than 5000 years. The color of the tubers can range from white, yellow, and orange, to a deep red or purple. It’s heat and light stable and performs well in acidic applications. 

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Purple sweet potato

The Hansen Sweet Potato™ is the industry’s first vegetable specifically developed for its unique coloring properties. It’s heat and light stable and is the best anthocyanin for maintaining red and pink color in products with a >5 pH level. 

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Hansen sweet potato™

Black carrot, Daucus carota, is a variety of the more common orange carrot. It’s grown mostly in southern Europe and Asia, particularly Turkey and India, where it’s consumed as a food and beverage. It’s heat and light stable and performs well in acidic applications.

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Black carrot

Native to the Mediterranean and Central Asia, thousands of grape varieties are now grown in temperate climates for consumption as a food or beverage. Only dark grape varieties that are rich in anthocyanins are suitable for color. Grape is fairly heat and light stable and performs well in acidic conditions. 

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Grape

Black currant has been valued for centuries as a nutritious food and a wild, edible delicacy. The berries can be eaten raw or cooked in a variety of sweet and savory dishes. They’re also used in the preparation of alcoholic beverages and both fruit and foliage are used in traditional medicine. 

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Black currant

Red beet or beetroot is easy to grow and has been cultivated in all temperate regions for centuries. It’s suitable for low heat applications and is unaffected by pH. 

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Red beet

Jagua fruit grows in the rainforests of South America, southern Mexico, and the Caribbean islands. The juice of the jagua fruit is transparent, but when exposed to amino acids, it turns a unique blue shade. It’s heat, light, and pH stable. 

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Jagua fruit

Spirulina, Arthrospira platensis, is a blue-green micro-algae. It’s extremely high in protein and nutrients, and is often referred to as a super-food, making it a popular dietary supplement. It’s light stable and can be blended with bright yellow to make green. 

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Spirulina

Alfalfa, which is a perennial, flowering, green leaf plant, produces chlorophyll, a pigment that gives color to leaves, vegetables, grasses, and all organisms capable of photosynthesis. It displays good heat and light stability.

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Green leaf plant

One of the most common natural colors, caramelized sugar is made by heating food grade carbohydrates. It has good heat and light stability. 

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Caramelized sugar

Made from fermented and roasted barley, malt has been used for centuries and is commonly associated with beer and fermented products. It displays good heat and light stability. 

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Malted barley

Apple juice itself has little color but using a proprietary cooking process, Oterra can produce stable golden to brown shades without caramelisation. This color comes primarily from Melanoidins and Melanins developed through both Maillard and Enzymatic reactions. The resulting concentrate can be used as an alternative to traditional caramels due its excellent heat, light and pH stability.

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Apple

Calcium carbonate is found in mineral sources such as calcite, limestone, and marble, as well as pearls, eggs, and marine organisms. It’s very heat and light stable. 

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Limestone

Made from the fine particles of carbonized vegetable material, peat has very good heat and light stability and is unaffected by pH.

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Peat

Oterra offers you all colors of the rainbow and more. Explore our natural, plant-based colors and order the best food colors available to your production.

Explore our full palette of natural colors

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