NGN invests in Ful Foods

FUL sells natural blue and green colors based on novel processing and extraction of pigment from spirulina.

Current naturals are typically extracted from plants (fruits, vegetables, flowers - all agriculturally based) and from insects. Food companies experience 3 major issues with naturals. First is aesthetics: many naturals lack the vibrancy (consumer flavor appeal) of synthetics. Blue color is specifically vulnerable and degrades in light, heat or low pH, resulting in gray or brown shades. Second is performance: many naturals fail under processing conditions (heat, pH, etc.). Third is cost: color naturals have 5–10X higher cost in use than synthetics. Natural blue colors are currently derived from plants (butterfly pea, gardenia) including algae (spirulina). These are less vibrant and relatively unstable due to the degradation of the plant proteins (source of the color) during preprocessing and extraction. FUL Foods patented technology addresses this issue – leaving molecular bonding of the proteins largely intact which delivers the desired color intensity and stability across a very wide range of applications in food, beverages, food service and pharma/nutraceuticals.