Color Quality Control Keeps Ketchup Brands Consistent

Ketchup brands know that color is about more than the electromagnetic spectrum. For ketchup brands, color is a way of communicating with customers. A deep red color conveys quality and shows customers that ripe, red tomatoes were used to make the final product. A rich red color is also what ketchup lovers expect and demand from their favorite condiment.

Ketchup brands also need to think about consistency. Ketchup brands are sold on store shelves close together and usually in clear containers, making any color variations instantly noticeable. By ensuring all bottles on a shelf have the same color, brands can show customers they will always deliver the same consistently quality product. 

The Importance of Color Consistency in Ketchup

Ensuring your brand's bottles of ketchup have an attractive color is just the start. The color of ketchup needs to be consistent and predictable for a few specific reasons:

• Brand recognition. Customers who have a favorite brand of ketchup choose their brand based on various factors, including flavor and color. If a customer prefers a deeper ketchup flavor, they will look for that corresponding shade on the shelves. If the color of the ketchup changes, the entire branded bottle can look different. This factor can mean customers won’t recognize your brand, and the work you’ve done to ensure brand loyalty will be undermined. 
• Quality perception. Shoppers expect ketchup to be red, and a nice color can suggest quality. If one bottle on the shelf contains a different color ketchup, customers may assume there’s something wrong with the product. This issue can lead to reduced trust for the whole brand.
• Comparison. On store shelves, ketchup brands are grouped together. Customers can compare different prices, brands, and colors of ketchup. Offering a consistent color helps you attract the customers who prefer your specific shade of ketchup. When customers compare your brand's ketchup products, they can know you provide a trustworthy and high-quality condiment. 

Spectrophotometers Ensure Color Consistency

To ensure brand consistency, ketchup manufacturers include color quality testing in their quality assurance processes. By assessing a representative amount of their ketchup batches for color consistency, they are able to ensure that each bottle of ketchup produced will emit the same color ketchup. To accomplish this, manufacturers turn to spectrophotometers, instruments designed specifically to rapidly determine the color of solid, liquid, and ketchup objects. Spectrophotometers measure color by reflecting controlled bursts of light off objects, and collecting and analyzing the light that returns. The entire process, from inserting a sample to reading the results, takes a matter of seconds.

Spectrophotometers Outperform Human Color Observers

Human technicians are a necessary and important part of the color quality control process. They prepare the sample and the instrument, interpret the data, and decide from there the best course of action to take. However, when it comes to actually determining the color of ketchup, spectrophotometric measurements are far superior to human eyesight. These instruments are standardized, so that each spectrophotometer will return the same results across years of measurement. Unfortunately, human eyesight is not nearly as consistent year to year, or person to person. Also, spectrophotometers are able to convert color into numerical values. These values can then be compared to a predetermined standard, also expressed numerically. This allows for greater descriptive specificity and repeatability than human observers can accomplish, as humans lack the language to discern or  describe colors with decimal accuracy.

Spectrophotometers also save labor by streamlining the documentation process. Instead of relying on paperwork filled out by quality control technicians, these instruments can store the results of their tests directly to a company’s server. This eliminates the need to record and upload quality testing data, saving time on a daily basis.

HunterLab’s ColorFlex EZ Tomato is specifically designed to measure tomato color in every form. Image Source: Unsplash user Roychan Kruawan

Color Flex EZ Tomato Provides Industry-Specific Data

Over our six decades of working to ensure color quality control in partnership with the food industry, HunterLab realized the need for a spectrophotometer designed specifically to measure tomato color. The ColorFlex EZ Tomato provides industry-leading color measurement accuracy and repeatability. Further, it comes equipped with industry standard tomato color scales, including the Tomato Catsup Score, (TCS), used for measuring and recording the color of ketchup. Should your company make more than one tomato product, the ColorFlex also has scales for tomato paste, tomato sauce, tomato juice, fresh tomatoes, and a range of non-tomato liquid, semi-solids, powders, and solids. Contact us to learn more about how the ColorFlex EZ Tomato can improve your ketchup manufacturing processes and help you create the highest quality products.