Precision Color Control for a Leading Functional Beverage Brand
In the highly competitive functional beverage market, color consistency is critical for brand recognition and consumer trust.
For one global energy drink leader, the distinctive golden-yellow hue of its product is an instantly recognizable hallmark of quality. Any deviation from this color standard could influence how consumers perceive freshness, taste, and overall product integrity.
To maintain its premium brand image and ensure every can and bottle meets the same exacting visual standard—across batches and production sites—the manufacturer needed a precise, objective, and repeatable method to measure and control color from raw material intake to finished product packaging.
Curious how color measurement can protect your beverage’s signature look?
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The Challenge: Safeguarding Brand Identity Through Color
Before adopting advanced color measurement technology, the beverage producer faced several key quality control challenges:
- Batch-to-batch variation caused by natural fluctuations in raw materials such as vitamins, pigments, and syrups.
- Subjectivity in visual inspection, where human perception varied due to lighting conditions, fatigue, and individual differences.
- Delayed detection of deviations, since color inconsistencies often went unnoticed until later in production—leading to rework, waste, and time loss.
- Brand risk, as even small deviations from the signature hue could impact consumer confidence and brand loyalty.
- Packaging inconsistencies, where variations in can or label colors created a disjointed visual appearance and potential consumer complaints.
Consistency was not just a production goal—it was a brand necessity.
The HunterLab Solution: Vista Spectrophotometer
The beverage producer implemented the HunterLab Vista Spectrophotometer to achieve total color control across production stages.
The Vista delivers accurate spectral analysis, providing objective color measurement in Hunter L, a, b, CIELAB, and WI E313 values. This enables manufacturers to establish and maintain precise color standards at every stage of production:
- Raw Material Testing: Ensures all key ingredients meet strict color specifications before entering the process.
- Real-Time Production Monitoring: Detects deviations immediately during blending and filling, allowing rapid formula or process adjustments.
- End Product Quality Control: Verifies that every batch meets the product’s signature golden color before packaging.
With simultaneous color and haze measurement, selectable pathlength options, and an intuitive touchscreen interface, Vista provides operator-independent precision—speeding up quality checks and eliminating visual guesswork.
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Outcomes: Consistency that Builds Confidence
By adopting HunterLab Vista, the beverage manufacturer achieved:
- Objective, repeatable color control free from human bias.
- Improved production efficiency through faster detection and correction of deviations.
- Reduced waste and rework via early-stage quality checks.
- Enhanced consumer trust, delivering consistent, recognizable appearance across markets.
- Reliable data traceability to support compliance and long-term optimization.
The result: a flawless golden hue, every time—protecting brand identity and production efficiency worldwide.
Why HunterLab
For over 70 years, HunterLab has helped beverage and food producers worldwide quantify what the human eye sees, ensuring color remains a symbol of quality and trust.
Whether optimizing juice blends, monitoring fortified drinks, or maintaining global batch-to-batch consistency, Vista empowers manufacturers to achieve precision, speed, and repeatability in every measurement.
Contact Us to learn how HunterLab can elevate your beverage quality program.
