The food and beverage industry is facing increased regulatory pressure as synthetic, petroleum-based colorants receive closer scrutiny. In response, many manufacturers are shifting toward natural pigments to align with evolving safety standards and consumer demand for simpler ingredient lists. While this transition supports long-term market trends, it introduces new challenges. Natural colorants are often more sensitive to environmental factors, making it harder to maintain a consistent product appearance over time.
Light Sensitivity of Natural Colorants
The primary challenge with natural colorants is their increased sensitivity to light. Unlike synthetic dyes, many natural pigments are prone to chromophore breakdown or gradual hue shifts when exposed to certain wavelengths. Interactions with other ingredients, such as acids or fats, can further accelerate fading or discoloration. As a result, determining how a formulation responds to light exposure is often more complex and less predictable than with traditional colorants.
The Difficulty of Isolating Environmental Variables
Natural pigments rarely respond to a single stress factor in isolation. Heat or humidity can worsen the effects of light, making it difficult to identify the primary cause of a visible change. When environmental conditions are not tightly controlled, test data can become ambiguous, raising uncertainty about whether a formulation issue stems from light exposure or from secondary climate effects.
The Risk of Misleading Accelerated Testing
To meet tight project timelines, manufacturers often rely on accelerated testing to rank candidate colorants. However, natural colors can behave differently under intense light or extreme climate conditions. In some cases, a pigment may appear stable under aggressive testing conditions but behave differently under ambient retail lighting. This disconnect creates risk, particularly when accelerated results are used to make formulation or packaging decisions that will later be validated in the market.
The Need for Defensible Data Under Regulatory Review
As regulatory scrutiny of food additives increases, the data supporting a new formulation must be accurate and verifiable. Regulatory review and internal quality processes both require clear, traceable documentation of test conditions and outcomes. Inconsistent data capture or incomplete records can slow approvals and complicate reformulation efforts. For manufacturers working with natural colorants, the ability to demonstrate how a product was tested, under what conditions, and with what controls, is just as critical as the test results themselves.
How BMT USA Climate Chambers Address These Challenges
BMT USA Climacell climate chambers are designed to support the realities of testing natural colorants under controlled, repeatable conditions. Independent control of light, temperature, and humidity allows manufacturers to study light exposure without interference from unintended variations. Uniform airflow and temperature across all shelves helps ensure that observed changes are tied to the intended stress factor rather than chamber inconsistencies.
Precise control over light intensity and climate cycling supports both real-time and accelerated studies, helping teams generate results that better reflect actual storage and retail conditions. Integrated, compliant data recording provides a secure record of test parameters and outcomes, supporting both internal decision-making and regulatory review.
Taken together, these capabilities allow manufacturers to evaluate natural colorants with greater confidence, reduce uncertainty during reformulation, and move forward with data they can stand behind.
Learn more
Explore BMT USA photostability chamber capabilities and options: bmtusa.com/climacell.