Today’s consumers evaluate more than flavor, texture, price, and label claims. They also respond to how a product looks. Color can set expectations before the first bite, suggesting flavor, creating contrast, supporting ingredient storytelling, and making familiar snack formats feel new.
As more brands explore plant-based colors for snacks, the conversation is moving beyond simple replacement. Color can become part of a product’s identity, working alongside flavor, texture, and format to shape the overall experience.
The EXBERRY® culinary team in North America explored this idea through Graze the Gradient: Chef-Crafted Bites, a snacking experience debuting at IFT FIRST 2026. The showcase features four composed dip-and-dipper concepts, each showing how color can support product storytelling through global flavor inspiration, sweet-spicy combinations, seasonal ingredients, and nostalgic formats.
Four plant-based color concepts for snack innovation
Golden Aji Hummus
Golden Aji Hummus layers global flavor inspiration into a familiar snack format. Aji amarillo brings fruit-forward heat to classic hummus, while ginger, garlic, sesame, and lemon add aromatic depth.
The team carried those flavors into a chili crisp topping, adding crunch, richness, and another layer of savory heat. Paired with carrot crackers, the concept connects global inspiration, layered flavor, and warm golden hues in one composed bite.
Buffalo Blue
Buffalo Blue translates the classic American pairing of wings and blue cheese dip into a snackable chip-and-dip format. The team leaned into the wordplay, turning “blue cheese” into a memorable color concept rather than a traditional blue cheese flavor.
Bold red wing-seasoned potato chips are paired with a whipped cheese dip made with a cottage cheese base and sharp cheddar for flavor, then colored with spirulina-based EXBERRY® blue for an unexpected hue. The result is familiar and creamy, but the color contrast makes people look twice.
Allium Bloom
Allium Bloom shows how color can reinforce seasonal ingredient storytelling. Built around a Charred Allium Dip, the concept reimagines classic French onion dip with charred scallions, caramelized spring onions, roasted garlic, and fresh chives.
Paired with violet chive blossom-seasoned potato chips, the concept brings the floral inspiration into the full snack experience. The green hue of the dip suggests spring’s first abundance, while the violet chips create a fresh visual contrast. The result is savory, layered, and familiar, with color making the seasonal inspiration more immediate.
Blood Orange Berbere Caramel
Blood Orange Berbere Caramel taps into the sweet-spicy, or “swicy,” flavor trend gaining traction across North American snack and dessert innovation. Blood orange brings tart citrus notes and vivid fruit character, while berbere adds a warm blend of chili, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, and other spices.
Rounded out with caramelized sugar and cream, the dip feels indulgent but unexpected. Paired with two shades of pink shortbread, the concept uses color to amplify the citrus-spice story and create a playful visual contrast.
From color inspiration to product development
Together, these concepts show why color is most effective when it is considered early in the development process. When color works with flavor, texture, and format, it can help make snacks more intuitive, more memorable, and more connected to the experience a brand wants to create.
This matters because visual cues are part of how consumers evaluate the products they choose. Menu Matters explores these motivations in its 2026 Consumer Needs Report, which highlights the growing importance of trust, authenticity, and products that feel real to today’s consumers.
Plant-based colors also require careful formulation. Shade selection, processing conditions, and scale-up can all affect the final result. That is why color works best when it is part of the development conversation from the start.
EXBERRY® colors are made from fruits, vegetables, and plants and can support a broad range of shades across many food and drink applications, helping brands create snacks that are visually distinctive, technically sound, and designed for real-world appeal.
Explore what “real” means for product development
Color is part of how consumers decide what a product seems to promise, from flavor and ingredients to whether it feels recognizable and real.
Join Maeve Webster of Menu Matters and Alice Lee of EXBERRY® by GNT for the upcoming webinar, What “Real” Means Today: From Consumer Expectations to Product Development, to explore what today’s expectations mean for food and beverage teams.
Attending IFT FIRST 2026? See these ideas in action July 12–15 in Chicago at EXBERRY® by GNT Booth #1635.
To connect with the GNT USA team or schedule a meeting, contact [email protected].