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Grains are integral to our everyday diets, from rice and flour to cereals, baked goods, and pasta. The color of raw grains contributes directly to their nutritional value, while the color of final goods can influence consumer buying preferences and quality perceptions. Understanding and following industry standards for grain color helps manufacturers maintain quality control, reduce waste, and boost customer satisfaction.

Applicable Color Standards in the Grains Industry

The United States Department of Agriculture is the main government oversight body for raw grains, and its color standards are used for classification and grading. Color can also help determine a grain's suitability for a specific application, as color variances can indicate damage that falls outside allowable tolerances for certain purposes.

The Cereals and Grains Association is the primary industry organization that develops color standards for grain manufacturers and processors. For example, the association has established color benchmarks and measuring methods for pasta products and durum flours. These standards are also compatible with those issued by AOAC International, which upholds standards across the broader agricultural chemistry field.

Protecting Brand Integrity Through Color Precision

Inconsistent ingredient color can cost manufacturers millions in rejected batches, regulatory setbacks, and lost consumer trust. For global ingredient leader Kemin Industries, ensuring color accuracy is not just an aesthetic concern—it's central to product quality and customer satisfaction. That’s why Kemin relies on HunterLab's advanced color spectrophotometers to protect the integrity of over 500 ingredient solutions across food, pet nutrition, and more.

Operating across more than 20 countries with 15 production facilities, Kemin faces the complex task of maintaining visual uniformity in highly diverse ingredient forms. From powders and granules to liquids and pellets, their customers expect one thing: consistency. And in today's competitive baking and snack markets, even slight color deviations can signal oxidation, processing errors, or shelf-life risks.

The Challenge: Detecting Oxidative Change Before It Affects Quality

Lipid-based oxidation is a persistent challenge in the baking and snack industries. As fats and oils degrade, they visibly darken ingredient color—even before other sensory qualities change. These early shifts can result in customer dissatisfaction or failed quality checks.

For Kemin, early detection of these subtle changes is essential to delivering on their promise of quality. They needed a solution that was:

• Sensitive enough to catch imperceptible color shifts
• Scalable across facilities and ingredient types
• Easy to operate with minimal variability between users

Tomatoes are essential in meeting global nutritional needs, improving health, and generating economic impact for communities worldwide. Billions depend on this crop — the second most grown vegetable on Earth — for better physical well-being and financial gain. As a result, color is a critical factor in quality control for tomato manufacturing.

The Role of Color in Tomato Quality Control

Tomato color influences customer preference, quality perceptions, grading classifications, and market value.

Meeting Consumer Preferences

Assessing color is one of the primary ways consumers make buying decisions. They see a tomato with a rich, red hue as a promise that it was harvested at the peak of freshness and flavor. Unripe ones and heirloom green varietals hint at a delightfully tart taste, perfect for a favorite Southern dish. Similar color associations exist for tomato-based products, such as tomato paste and sauce.

Beyond taste, tomatoes are prized for their nutraceutical content — they're high in several vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, and fiber that offer physical benefits. The more their color meets or exceeds customer expectations, the higher the consumer perceptions of the product's safety and quality. Increased confidence in those traits directly translates into a rise in purchase likelihood.

Conforming With Standards

Modern tomato processing facilities are covered entities under Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which subjects them to oversight by the Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). As a result, they must follow Current Good Manufacturing Practices, which include measuring color as part of quality assurance. The USDA sets color tolerances for tomatoes to help determine their grade, meaning quantifying color is essential for proper classification.

Those operating under voluntary frameworks may also need to evaluate color for conformance with the guidelines. For example, the Safe Quality Food standards specify color analysis as a vital quality assurance measure under several codes.

Leveraging Financial Potential

Businesses that thrive often do so by maximizing their profitability, and color quality is a key driver in that quest. Generating high consumer quality perceptions through color can help goods fetch premium prices, as buyers with increased product confidence are frequently willing to pay more for extra peace of mind.

For companies seeking to expand, color quality becomes even more essential. Tomatoes and tomato-based products must meet specific standards to access new markets that can help spur organizational growth.

For example, the EU has multiple standards that apply to imported tomatoes and tomato-based products. These help establish the minimum grades acceptable for sale within the bloc, and color is a primary determinant in that classification. Individual EU countries may also impose their own standards for the crop and its processed goods. Accurately quantifying color to prove conformance with the standards makes it easier to access these high-value markets.

Color is one of the first things that comes to mind when thinking of candy, as this sweet comes in a rainbow of vibrant hues. The importance of appearance in candy means that those who manufacture it should follow industry best practices to ensure an enjoyable consumer experience.

Consider the Importance of Color

Before you start measuring, note why color matters in candy. Consumers judge food based on appearance, and color sets expectations for quality and taste. Beyond those expectations, color influences whether customers buy a product. They repeatedly turn to brands that offer color consistency as a reliable indicator of quality.

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. 

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.

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.