What is CARAMEL COLOR? | What Is That Ingredient

What is CARAMEL COLOR?

Caramel color is burnt or carmalized sugars and starches usualy in a water suspension.

Where does CARAMEL COLOR come from?

There are many different types of caramel color, each engineered to serve a particular purpose in food chemistry. They are all based on the cooking of sugars and starches. Sometimes acids such as Acetic Acid, Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, or Phosphoric Acid, are used to break the bonds between sugars to create invert sugars, or to make sugars from starches, before the sugars are raised to a higher temperature for carmelization.

How is CARAMEL COLOR made?

Sugars and starches are heated until they begin to carmelize or burn. The heat is carefully controlled during carmelization to get the right products from the reaction. Besides acids, alkalies and salts may be used to further control the process.

Is CARAMEL COLOR healty for me?

Carmel color is about as healthy as sugar. But depending on the processes it is produced in might have trace amounts of acids used in its production.

More information about CARAMEL COLOR.

Caramel color is a colloid, a mixture in which solid particles are suspended in Water. The particles in colloids have electric charges that keep the particles from clumping together and settling out of solution. The charges can be positive or negative. If a negative coloid is added to a product that has positive colloidal particles in it, the two will attract one another and clump up, making the product cloudy.

Caramel color can be made with either positively or negatively charged particles. This allows manufacturers to use negative colloidal caramel in acidic soft drinks, and positive in beers and soy sauces. Beer has positively charged proteins suspended in it, and soy sauce has a high salt content that requires the more salt-tolerant positive caramel color.

Caramel color is an emulsifying agent as well as a colorant. In soft drinks, it helps keep the flavor oils suspended in the solution.

In Chocolate Milk, the muddy color of caramel is darkened by the addition of FD&C Red #40 to give what the industry refers to as a "Dutch" chocolate shade. Blues and yellows are sometimes used to give a more brown color.

Caramel color is added to baked goods, to poultry, to Milk to give an "Eggnog" color, to Malt Vinegars, canned meats, syrups, and soups, stews, and gravies.