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“We're looking at new extraction methods for colours”
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Tuesday, 01 October, 2013, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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fiogf49gjkf0d The list of synthetic colours permitted by India's apex food regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), has remained unchanged for over five decades, making their harmonisation with the protocols followed overseas a key challenge.
Sumant Naik, chief executive officer, ITC Colors, in an interaction with Anurag More, highlighted the impact of the regulations on the Indian food colour industry, and his company's long-standing focus on exports. Excerpts:
What are the types of natural and synthetic colours commonly used in India, and the prevalent trends in the Indian market?
The types of natural and synthetic colours commonly used in India are those which are governed by the rules and regulations prescribed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
Natural colours are those which try to replicate the same spectrum as the synthetic colours. These include lemon yellow, orange, red, green, etc.
Some natural colours, such as turmeric and annatto extracts – which have a history of being used traditionally in India – are permitted.
The oldest usage of annatto extracts, in both their water- and oil-soluble forms, is in butter and cheese.
These are a carotenoid colourings like Canthaxanthin and methyl esters and ethyl esters of Beta-apo-8-carotenal, which are extremely expensive and not economical enough to be used in the food space.
Nowadays, we see the increasing use of natural colours in dairy products and dry mix beverages in India, because in these types of colours, the actual use of colour is very minimal. Therefore it does not represent any major escalation in costs for the food processing company.
But in such segments as confectionery and beverages, which are major users of colourants, a shift to natural colours has still not occurred.
However, FSSAI does not permit the use of beetroot (E162) or paprika extracts (E160c) as food colours.
Synthetic colours mainly conform to the protocols laid down by Codex and the European Union (EU), which are known as E numbers. Locally, INS numbers are assigned to those colours. The United States follows slightly different protocols.
The most common synthetic colours are those in the spectrum (namely orange, yellow, red, blue and green). Commonly known as primary colours, they include Ponceau 4R, Carmoisine, Erythrosine, Tartrazine, Sunset Yellow, Indigo Carmine, Brilliant Blue FCF and Fast Green FCF.
Despite the fact that the law has reduced the maximum permissible level by half [from 200 parts per million (ppm) to.100ppm], the organised sector still largely uses synthetic food colours.
However, to a certain extent, the list of colours permitted in India has remained static. Some of these are based on the 1962 protocol, and have not kept pace with the changes that have taken place in other countries, especially in the United States and Europe.
What are the products offered by ITC Colors in the food colours space? What is the company's share in the market?
ITC Colors has been a rather entrant in the Indian food colour space. The dominant players in the domestic food colour market, like Roha, Neelikon, IFF and Narmada, started their operations in the 1970s and 80s.
As far as synthetic colours are concerned, we have a very negligible share in the Indian market, but we were amongst the earliest players in the natural colour space, and have a reasonably good market share.
So far, our main focus has been on the export sector for both synthetic and natural food colourings to Europe, the Middle-East and the Far-Eastern countries.
Since there is a growing demand for customised colourings in India now, we have geared ourselves up to cater to this segment.
To which countries do you export?
We exporting to Southern and Western Europe, the Middle- and Far-Eastern countries and other Asian countries.
We do not export to North America, because there are greater competitive and regulatory challenges.
What are the challenges faced by the industry? What steps is the industry taking to cope with them?
Both the natural and synthetic colour segments face many challenges in India.
Firstly, to a large extent, the raw material for synthetic colours are imported from China. It represents nearly 60-70 per cent of the unit value of synthetic food colours, and there have been a lot of fluctuations in the exchange rates.
The fact that we are dependent on China for the supply of intermediate of raw material is not a very favourable situation.
Secondly, the dyestuffs business in India, and to some extent, in China, has flourished and to some extent, because the environmental rules and regulations are less demanding than they are in Europe.
Most of the colour manufacturers in India are based in the western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. As the government has made the environmental control regulations more stringent, it has become more difficult for most manufacturers to comply with the norms.
Thirdly, most factories cannot be fully automated due to batch-production practices and an increase in the packaging and manpower costs. These has resulted in major cost escalations.
As far as natural food colours are concerned, there are problems like the lack of backward integration for the cultivation of raw material. As a result of this, there is a dependence on the mandi system to buy agricultural raw material for extraction, even in the areas where India remains strong in growing natural colours like chilli or paprika.
Owing to the lack of scale, governmental and technical support and the low prices the commodities, a large part of the cultivation takes place in China.
Infrastructure bottlenecks, labour issues, and the lack of reliable power also pose problems for the industry.
Despite these problems, the industry has not reached a point where the sales volumes are affected. However, increasing its market share would remain a challenge.
What are the innovations taking place with respect to food colours?
Most of the innovations in food colours are taking place in the natural space, due to newer methods of extraction like super-critical fluid extraction (SCFE) and superior formulations. These have led to brighter, cheaper and more stable products.
I think many innovations are consumer-driven, especially in clean label issues.
Most of these are driven by the United States and the United Kingdom, where the foodstuff is purified and processed with minimalistic techniques to retain their natural colours and flavours.
What are the kinds of colours used in different foods and beverages (fruit-based drinks, sweets, ice cream)?
Usually, the usage of colour relates to the flavour used. In fact, there is always a strong corresponding interplay between the use of flavours and colours.
In natural colours, it is very important to customise the colours as per the customer's application, because natural colours are more labile towards light, heat and pH.
Moreover, they have to be compatible with the customer's processing conditions as well as the usage and storage conditions.
How important is packaging for food colours?
Synthetic food powder colours with a shelf-life of 36 months are chemically more stable, so the packaging is usually done in poly-lined drums or jars at an ambient temperatures ranging between five and 35 degrees Centigrade.
Natural colours, in the powdered or liquid forms, have a shorter shelf life ranging between six months and a year.
Storage and packaging conditions are very important to maintain the product integrity and micro-biological parameters.
What are the price points?
The prices of synthetic colours range between $4 and $15, and those of natural colours range between $10- $150.
That is the reason the cost of using natural colours is much higher than that of using synthetic colours.
In applications like confectionery and beverages, the usage of natural colourings may be ten times.
How strict are the Indian rules and regulations when it comes to food colours?
I would say they are very rigid, as is evident from the fact that the list of universally-permitted synthetic colours have been static for several decades.
There is not much scope to change the Indian rules, but as far as natural ingredients are concerned, there is definitely a very compelling reason for our regulatory authority to become more proactive.
Moreover, the methodology to determine the purity of natural food colourings needs to be defined.
How are the food colours used in India different from those used by the food processing industries overseas?
Different countries have their own protocol for permitted lists.
However, I would say that there is a confluence of 80-90 per cent in the lists.
What are the future prospects of food colours used in India?
As the processed food industry becomes more organised and the share of the organised processed food industry vis-a-vis the unorganised sector grows, the industry would have to use more ingredients like colours, flavours, preservatives and texturisers, because processed foods must have a minimum shelf life ranging between six months and two years.
Expedients play a key role in maintaining the homogeneity and product quality of the products in terms of taste, colour and mouth-feel.
Tell us about your expansion plans.
Our expansion plans require us to increase our production activity, especially in natural colours.
We are also looking at new extraction methods for natural colours, and also to have a dedicated product application centre for our customers.
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