Roee Nir, global commercial manager of color and flavour, LycoRed, explains to Ben Bouckley at Drinktec 2013 that the Israel firm is targeting Europe and the US with Lyc-O-Beta Intense – a natural beta-carotene based colorant, with the main focus Europe due to preference for natural colors.
“This colorant allows our customers to use much less beta-carotene in their applications. It is a liquid product, versus the powder that tends to clump. It has a much more intensive color, and therefore allows significant cost savings in both food and beverage applications,” Nir says.
Several years ago Nir said LycoRed predicted that US demand for natural colors would grow: “Now we observe how food and beverage companies do move to natural, and agree to pay the premium involved in switching from synthetic to natural,” he says.