Any recommendations on where to get natural food colorings? We love our red velvet cake, but it's time to take the red dye out of the picture. Many food colorings are not only made from awful things, but compromise the taste of the food too.
I see a few different 'all natural' food colorings out there, that are made from plant extracts. Has anyone tried them? Any reviews or recommendations?
1. How was the color intensity, comported to the normal dyes
2. Was there any flavor impact using the natural colors? Any off tastes?
Thanks!!
The only commercial natural food colorings I'm aware of are from India Tree, but they aren't really all-natural anymore since they now contain propylene glycol, and they don't work very well for anything other than pastels.
One alternative could be making your own coloring with beet powder, or even including beets in the cake recipe, like this: http://www.sophistimom.com/red-velvet-cake-all-natural-no-red-dye/
I'm not sure if it's available to the general public, but Starbucks just announced they're switching to lycopene (derived from tomatoes) for their red dye, because people were complaining about the crushed bugs. It should be noted that the crushed bugs were natural, too. 
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-starbucks-cochineal-insect-extract-20120419,0,2138382.story?track=rss
Lycopene-based food coloring is called Lycored, you can contact the manufacturer here. They primarily sell to industry but they may be able to point you to a distributor in your area.
http://www.lycored.com/web/content/contact.asp
The strange thing about the Starbucks issue is that they would have had to go out of their way to buy Red 4 dye (which is made out of cochineal bug extract) when Red 40 (which is completely synthetic) is widely available.
Thank you for the good information.
I had found India Tree, but, yes - I had also read from amazon reviews that it is no longer natural, and that propylene glycol is actually an ingredient in Anti Freeze? So, THAT won't be in our cakes.
I did, however, ping lycored, about their TOMAT-O-RED to see if there is an avenue for purchase to small business. Wont hold my breath.
Although making our own food coloring out of beets is possible, we are already looking for ways to cut our labor costs . . that is where our bottleneck is. So, I would rather find a premium quality natural coloring if possible.
We have an organic co op here, and was hoping they would have something, but we found out they used to get one in, but have had trouble getting it in stock for a long time 
These products, colors and website are recommended by Pierre Herme, Nancy Baggett and Charm City Cakes among others. You can get natural powders, liquids, pastes, and more - chocolatecraftcolors.com
http://www.chocolatecraftkits.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page&id=25
This is great - Thank You!
We will, most likely, order this and do a test of at least the red. Hopefully there is no additional flavor that impacts the cake. This is good!
These products, colors and website are recommended by Pierre Herme, Nancy Baggett and Charm City Cakes among others. You can get natural powders, liquids, pastes, and more - chocolatecraftcolors.com
http://www.chocolatecraftkits.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page&id=25
Please post your review after you have tried them .I want to find some natural.food colors also .I had thought about America colors .
I bought natural powders for my macarons, but they are expensive. I'm not sure how they would do in a large batter. A lot of these powders were not only colored, they were also flavored. For example, pumpkin powder was orange, raspberry was dark pink. I got them from My spice Sage, Amazon, and I think L'Epicerie.
I also love to make use of natural food colouring. I believe chemicals don't belong in our food. But so difficult with combining this hobby for special effects! On a Dutch-forum I posted some examples: http://www.deleukstetaarten.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?id=181237. All in Dutch but pictures speak for themeselfs. Post numer 1, 58, 62 and 63 contain pictures of cakes made bij natural foodcolouring. First one (the basis layer only) made brown with cocao, second one green with Japanese matcha powder, 3th one and beyond with natural colourings of a Dutch store called www.vrouwtjedeeg.nl . No added chemicals.
Love to see your cakes!
Amoretti makes a line of natural colors
http://www.amoretti.com/amoretti/Food%20Colors/7/1
Note that only the colors that actually say natural on this page are natural. They are not really deep if you mix them into fondant or icing, but can be used as paint for some applications. They are really nice for pastel marzipan, but I haven't tried them in American buttercream. They also have a line of natural flavoring/coloring.
http://www.amoretti.com/amoretti_artisan_natural_flavors/Artisan%20Natural%20Flavors/30/1
They are pretty sweet, but my sales rep says people like them for things like icings and ice creams. I wasn't a huge fan of the ones I tried, but it was only a couple and I tend to not like sweet, so your mileage may vary.
The folks at Amoretti will ship, have no minimum order, and have lots and lots of interesting products. They are not inexpensive, but I believe they will send samples even if you don't have a business. Though many items come in large quantities, they are starting to offer products in two and four ounce amounts and are trying to make more things natural all the time. They are also kosher certified by Kehilla Kosher in LA, which is pretty much universally accepted.
You can try it from United Kingdom Natural food products provider I am sure you will get what you want.
Hello, we are a large-scale and professional natural color manufacturer who have specialized in natural color production and application for more than 20 years. All of our natural colors are extracted from plants and no flavor. Tell us your ideal hue, then we can help you resolve problems in natural color application. For more details, please contact Alice Lee through sales01@hazhongda.com .
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