Raw materials you can rely on
Exceptional colors require exceptional raw materials.
EXBERRY® colors are made from non-GMO fruit, vegetables, and plants that consumers know and trust. Discover how we deliver a complete rainbow of shades using natural and sustainable raw materials.
Explore our raw materials
Spirulina
GNT pioneered the production of spirulina concentrates for blue and green shades in 1994.
Sustainably grown in the world’s largest spirulina park, we gently process the microalgae at our state-of-the-art facility in the Netherlands.
While spirulina is sensitive to heat and acid, we can provide solutions for most food and beverage applications.
Safflower
Suitable for food and drink, safflower concentrates deliver vibrant yellow shades with excellent pH, heat, and light stability.
The plant is grown in many parts of the world, including China, India, Mexico, and Southern Europe. With demand growing, we have taken action to ensure our safflower resources remain safe, secure, and sustainable over the long term
Turmeric
This popular spice delivers vibrant yellow shades in food and drink.
We source our turmeric from small-scale farmers in South America, who cultivate richly colorful crops using traditional methods and organic practices.
Turmeric concentrates are sensitive to light and best suited to products in opaque packaging or internal fillings.
Algal Carotene
Dunaliella salina algae can deliver bright yellow shades in food and drink.
We produce our beta-carotene food coloring ingredients using essential oils, making them ideal for natural formulations. They are also highly sustainable and ethically produced. They can benefit from the addition of ascorbic acid to improve stability in some applications.
Orange and Yellow Carrot
Carrots deliver pH-independent yellow and orange colors for food and drink.
Our farmers use specially selected varieties with high color intensity to ensure high-performing, resilient shades. They are also grown within a 200-kilometer radius of our European factories, cutting down their footprint and ensuring maximum color retention.
Annatto
Our oil-soluble annatto Bixin extract delivers intense orange shades in fat-based food applications.
Annatto seeds are derived from the achiote tree and are used in traditional South American cuisines for their rich yellow-orange hues. They are harvested sustainably and we use a gentle, alkaline water-based extraction method to extract our colors.
Pumpkin
We use pumpkins grown close to our European factories to provide vibrant, stable, and pH-independent yellow shades for food and drink.
Our contract farmers are trained in sustainable agriculture. They use pumpkin varieties that are more resilient to climate change than other variants and contain more color per kilogram of weight.
Paprika
Peppers that are rich in carotenoid pigments provide highly effective pH-independent orange shades.
Our paprika colors have exceptionally high color intensity and are suitable for almost any type of food application. The peppers are all fully traceable and grown in line with GNT’s strict sustainability standards.
Red Beet
Our red beets are sustainably grown by contract farmers using crop varieties with high color intensity.
The beetroot concentrates contain pH-independent betanin pigments that can deliver bright pink shades in food and drink. They can offer an excellent alternative to anthocyanin-based colors in applications with higher pH levels, but heat sensitivity must be considered.
Red Sweet Potato
Delivering vibrant, yellowish red hues, red sweet potato concentrates offer excellent stability in food and drink.
They can be used to achieve bright hues at higher pH levels than many other anthocyanin-based colors. In addition, they do not impact the flavor profile of the end product.
Radish
These vegetable concentrates can provide stable red shades in a wide range of applications, although their anthocyanin pigments can shift toward blue at higher pH levels.
The radishes are grown close to our European factories by contract farmers trained in sustainable agriculture.
Purple Sweet Potato
The anthocyanin pigments in purple sweet potato coloring concentrates provide vibrant pink shades in food and beverages.
They are well suited to a vast range of low-pH applications and will perform well in formulations that require high heat processing.
Elderberry
A popular superfood, these fruits are rich in anthocyanin pigments that provide bright red shades at low pH levels.
Our contract farmers grow the berries in fields based close to our European factories.
Black and Purple Carrot
GNT pioneered the use of black carrot concentrates for color in 1995 and they are used to deliver vibrant reds in low-pH applications.
Our proprietary seeds provide maximum color content, and the crops are grown close to our processing sites to minimize any color loss. Our purple carrots, meanwhile, deliver stable purple shades in low-pH applications.
Apple
We use apple concentrates to create brown shades with excellent heat and light stability.
They can be used across a range of food applications including bakery, dairy, fruit prep, and confectionery.
Caramelized Sugar
Our caramelized sugar concentrates offer a clean-label alternative to caramel colors for a wide range of applications.
They are especially well suited to low-pH soft drinks, delivering clear brown shades with excellent light, heat and acid stability. The colors are made by heating sugars from European sugar beets.
Vibrant colors sourced from nature
We know you want your colors to be natural, sustainable, traceable, and dependable.
That’s why we work closely with our farmers to ensure all our fruits, vegetables, and plants provide the intense, stable results you need. That’s why we work closely with our farmers to ensure all our fruits, vegetables, and plants provide the intense, stable results you need.
Our unique supply chain model allows us to guide our growers on everything from the ideal crop varieties to sustainable approaches that will succeed for decades to come.
Explore our raw materials
Contact the EXBERRY® experts
Ready to learn more? Get in touch with our experts for everything from technical advice to regulatory matters to sample requests.
Whatever you need, we’re here to help.