Frutarom Is Now One of Top Five Natural Colors Suppliers Worldwide

Photo © Shutterstock.com/Jag_cz

Ingredients firm Frutarom (Herzliya, Israel) is touting its new status as one of the world’s top five suppliers of natural colors. The company says it built its business through recent acquisitions of several natural-color companies as well as investments in the company’s natural-colors facilities and supply chains. It says it has seen double-digit annual growth in its natural-colors business.

The company stresses the importance of securing a continuous, sustainable, and fully traceable source of natural pigments and food colorants. To secure its supply chain, the company says it “initiated dozens of agriculture collaborations with local farmers in multiple locations and countries.”

“Frutarom has taken full control of the supply chain through reverse integration in order to ensure safe, natural colorants, with complete traceability,” said Ori Yehudai, president and CEO, Frutarom, in a press release. “Placing the customer at the focal point of our business allowed us to effect true change in how the company engages with partners and farmers, while maintaining complete transparency.” The company says it also established many extraction facilities that are located near the farms where its ingredients are sourced, which the firm says helps reduce environmental impact and enhanced traceability.

The company says it also boosted its own production capabilities. It recently invested €5 million to open a natural-color formulation center at its Frutarom Etol plant in Slovenia. (Frutarom took over the plant when it acquired the company Etol in 2012.) Frutarom says the new formulation center will serve European customers and help them develop new applications for natural colors, as well as new flavor combinations. This center, called Frutarom Etol, will serve 15,000 Frutarom customers in Europe, who account for approximately 50% of the company’s global natural-colors customers.

“Etol has a solid reputation of successful cooperation with food and beverage customers in creating new flavor solutions,” Yehudai said in the press release. “Frutarom Etol is expanding its offerings to include a full range of natural colors manufactured with advanced technologies. Natural colors are much more challenging than synthetic colors in terms of their sensitivity, and if not incorporated correctly, can be less stable in food and beverage applications.