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"Top 5 Things to Know About Measuring the Color of Spices"

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"Dairy Industry Color Standards"

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"Measuring the Color of Protein Powder Using Spectrophotometry Enhances Appeal"

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"What Different Types of Color Spectrophotometers Are There?"

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"What Is the Best Way to Measure the Color of Herbs?"

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"Top 5 Things to Know About Measuring the Color of Seasonings"

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"Fruit Industry Color Standards"

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Top 5 Things to Know About Measuring the Color of Spices

Posted on Apr 30, 2025 by HunterLab

Spices are essential ingredients in food, providing flavor and visual appeal that enhance the presentation of dishes. Color measurement enables you to maintain consistency across multiple batches for a higher-quality, more desirable result. 

While measurement offers numerous advantages, you'll want to account for these considerations to make your processes more effective. 

1. Color and Texture Vary

Spices come from sources ranging from plant bark to seeds. These differences in origin naturally result in variations, including distinctions in color and texture. These factors influence how you measure individual spice types. Also, moisture and particle size affect results, so taking note of variations helps you measure more accurately. 

2. Appearance Influences Flavor Perception

People perceive flavors partially through color. For example, they expect paprika to have a bright red appearance and a mild, sweet taste. If paprika has a different shade, like a brownish hue, people will perceive its flavor differently. The same idea applies to all spices, so manufacturers must keep these consumer perceptions in mind when measuring color. 

Posted in Color In Food Industry

Dairy Industry Color Standards

Posted on Apr 22, 2025 by HunterLab

Color is a critical quality evaluation indicator in dairy product manufacturing, as it helps determine freshness and purity in both raw inputs and finished goods. Measuring at each step is also crucial to ensure products meet standards and gauge the impacts of processing and storage on color. Industry benchmarks help manufacturers set allowable tolerances and form a basis for scientific comparison to support consistency and quality.

Color Standards That Apply to the Dairy Industry

Numerous color standards apply to dairy products at both the governmental and industry levels.

All covered food manufacturing and processing facilities within the U.S. are subject to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight. The agency issues standards on color tolerances, color additives, and acceptable measuring methods. Compliance with these standards is mandatory to prevent financial penalties. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has set voluntary standards for color in milk and butter products to help create consistency between manufacturers for positive consumer perceptions. 

Additionally, the industry's American Dairy Product Institute™ determines and maintains standards for its members, including color tolerances for lactose and whey.

Posted in Color In Food Industry

Measuring the Color of Protein Powder Using Spectrophotometry Enhances Appeal

Posted on Apr 22, 2025 by HunterLab

From professional athletes to vegetarians and vegans, thousands of people around the world use protein powder supplements to meet their nutritional needs, and color is one of the most important factors consumers consider when they shop for these products. Color not only plays a significant role in sensory appeal and flavor perception, but color consistency is also an important indicator of quality, as consistency can only be achieved through a refined manufacturing process. In fact, unwanted color changes can signal a compromised product.

Unfortunately, many protein manufacturers struggle with color consistency in their products. Factors like inconsistent ingredients, uneven mixing, and environmental conditions can impact the color of the powder. Thoroughly testing the color of your protein powder using spectrophotometric color measurement technology enhances consistency. 

These solutions allow you to produce more appealing products that are consistent from batch to batch, ensuring that customer expectations are met both in the short and long term. By focusing on color quality control throughout the manufacturing process, you can produce powders that are as appealing as they are nutritious.

Color Consistency Is a Sign of Quality in Protein Powder

Color consistency matters for various reasons, from appealing to consumers to demonstrating the quality of products. 

The Factors Influencing Protein Powder Color

Protein powders come in a variety of colors depending on the ingredients the manufacturer uses. For example, if a protein powder contains cocoa, it will be naturally brown in color. Likewise, powders made from pea protein often have a slightly green hue. However, while the raw ingredients in protein powder have an impact on the color of the product, many manufacturers use color additives or bleaching to achieve consistent colors and optimize visual appeal.

How Color Influences Appeal

Researchers have found that customers have strong opinions when it comes to the appearance of protein powders, with white, green, and dark brown colors being preferred by most.

Many consumers prefer protein products that appear dull (rather than bright) in color, as this makes the product appear more natural. Color can influence how people perceive the flavor, sweetness, and freshness of food products.

White products appear pure and free of contaminants, consumers associate the color green with health, and dark brown powders often appear dependable and free from unappealing artificial additives. Many protein powder manufacturers generally aim for one of these three shades when they create their products.

Other Reasons Why Color Matters

Color can also have practical benefits that go beyond psychological impact, and manufacturers often bleach protein powder in part to make it easier for consumers to identify when the powder has expired or oxidized. 

For example, whey protein is naturally yellow in color because it derives from cheddar cheese. However, when this powder is exposed to heat or humidity, oxidation will cause the powder to yellow further or turn brown over time. When this happens, lysine (an important amino acid in the supplement) begins to break down, and the powder may become less effective as a result.

As such, color change can act as a very real and important indicator of efficacy. Unfortunately, many consumers dislike the product’s natural yellow coloration and find it difficult to tell whether the powder is spoiled because they are not able to discern the degree of yellowing. To address this, manufacturers often bleach whey protein powder to make it appear as white as possible. Not only does this increase visual appeal, but it also allows consumers to more easily detect yellowing caused by oxidation and, hence, potential spoilage.

Whether you choose to bleach your powder, add food dyes, or use only natural ingredients in your formula, it’s important to test your products for color consistency throughout the manufacturing process. This step will help you achieve a desirable look for your protein powder and ensure that your products are free of contaminants.

Posted in Color In Food Industry

What Different Types of Color Spectrophotometers Are There?

Posted on Apr 22, 2025 by HunterLab

As the ideal solution for analyzing sample color, spectrophotometers are essential equipment for quality, research, and forensic labs worldwide. These powerful devices capture critical data about a substrate's properties to help quantify or categorize it accurately. Spectrophotometers contain a spectrometer, which detects and measures wavelengths using sensors to break down the energy into its components. They also include a light source that emits energy into the sample.

Different types of spectrophotometers exist, each with distinct functions and ideal applications, including color spectrophotometers that help ensure color and appearance quality and consistency. These are specialized solutions designed exclusively to measure color within the visible spectrum between about 360 and 780 nanometers — the wavelengths of light the human eye can perceive. Color spectrophotometers come in multiple styles and employ different optical configurations to provide precise color and spectral data.

What Is a Color Spectrophotometer Used For?

Color spectrophotometers are invaluable in any application where quantifying color according to a set of numerical values is crucial to quality and product appearance. Common spectrophotometer uses and industries include the following.

Food and Beverage Manufacturing

Appearance is an important quality indicator in buying decisions, and spectrophotometers help food manufacturers ensure their products fall within acceptable color expectations to entice consumers. Color can also signify a food's suitability for safe consumption and influence perceptions of flavor, freshness, and nutrition. Food manufacturers rely on spectrophotometers to quantify chromatic data for products ranging from snack foods to dairy-based items, fruits and vegetables, and edible oils.

Color plays an equally pivotal role in beverage production, where it helps establish the commercial quality of coffee and the clarity of bottled water according to industry scales.

Plastic Manufacturing

Plastics manufacturers face unique color challenges as industry regulations evolve. Natural yellowing during virgin production calls for the use of optical brighteners to overcome. With more and more governmental mandates for higher post-consumer recycled content, finding the ideal mix to achieve the desired color repeatedly is an ongoing issue for most. Color spectrophotometers help companies in the plastics industry identify and maintain the optimal balance needed for quality, compliance, and appearance.

Chemical Processing

Samples in the chemical processing industry range from opaque powders to translucent or transparent liquids, with some being substantially costly. Accurate chemical mixing is also paramount to safety. Color spectrophotometers enable professionals in this industry to ensure quality and safety by helping identify physical properties and adhere to strict tolerances.

Other Industries

Additional industries relying on color spectrophotometers for capturing chromatic and spectral data include:

  • Bio-pharmaceuticals
  • Building products
  • Paints and coatings
  • Textiles
  • Paper goods

Posted in Instruments And Software

What Is the Best Way to Measure the Color of Herbs?

Posted on Apr 09, 2025 by HunterLab

Herbs add flavor and visual appeal to food, making proper quality control processes essential in production. In mixed herbs, nonuniform piece shapes and sizes may make measurement more challenging. This challenge calls for a specialized device and proper techniques to maintain high product quality and consumer appeal.

Use the Right Measurement Method

Several measurement methods exist for herb color assessment, including visual comparisons. However, these techniques come with challenges, such as differences in how each individual perceives color. Collecting quantitative data on herb color using a spectrophotometer is a vastly more accurate method. This device uses a controlled light source and detector to quantify light wavelengths and create specific numerical values. 

Posted in Food

Top 5 Things to Know About Measuring the Color of Seasonings

Posted on Apr 09, 2025 by HunterLab

Color consistency in seasonings is crucial to your product's success with consumers, and chromatic data lets you know your goods fall within allowable tolerances. Exploring the top five things to know about measuring the color of seasonings enables you to achieve consistency and improve product quality.

1. Understand How Color Influences Your Customers' Buying Decisions

Seasonings bring products to life with a unique flavor that your consumers crave, but visual inspection is the first experience these customers have with your goods. Color becomes an important indicator in consumers' choices since they equate it with flavor, quality, and desirability. No matter how tasty your seasoning is, customers will pass on your products if they don't meet color expectations. 

2. Choose the Right Measurement Method for Their Physical Traits

Seasonings present unique measurement challenges due to their physical properties — they often feature components with different sizes, shapes, or textures. For example, everything bagel seasoning has small, round poppy seeds combined with larger, flatter sesame seeds and flakes of sea salt, minced onion, and dried garlic. These nonuniform traits require reflectance measurements to quantify color accurately.

Posted in Food

Fruit Industry Color Standards

Posted on Apr 09, 2025 by HunterLab

Accurate fruit color quantification is crucial for produce processors and exporters. Correctly assessing color helps agricultural professionals understand when to harvest fruits so they arrive on the shelves at the pinnacle of appeal for consumers. Chromatic and spectral data capture also allows manufacturers to adhere to industry or regulatory standards, supporting safe consumption and conformance with these mandates.

What Color Standards Apply to Fruit?

The primary color standards for fruit come from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Fruit processors use these guidelines to help establish grades and gauge maturity. For example, apples must meet a specified color level to carry designations like Extra Fancy and No. 1. Similar standards exist for other produce.

Fruits slated for export must also meet standards set by the receiving jurisdiction. For instance, European Union Rule 2023/2429 establishes the color requirements for citrus fruits, chili peppers, berries, and more.

Posted in Food
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