Natural Colorants: Making Your HPMC Capsules Even More “Natural”
Imagine you’re at a sporting event and the cheerleaders are leading your customers in a cheer. Except instead of shouting about the game, they’re shouting about vitamins and nutraceuticals! Here’s what this might sound like:
Cheerleader: “What do we want?”
Crowd: “All-natural supplements!”
Cheerleader: “When do we want it?”
Crowd: “NOW!”
Cheerleader: “How will we recognize it?”
Crowd: “We’ll read the packaging and look for ‘clean labels!’”
Clean labels are extremely important to many consumers
If you take a trip to the vitamin and supplement aisle of your local health food store, you’re likely to see a lot of consumers taking the time to scrutinize the label. Does the product use vegan capsules? Is it made from natural ingredients? Is it vegan registered? Is it certified Kosher and/or Halal? Is it GMO-free?
Many consumers feel that, since the entire reason they’re taking supplements is to support their health, these products themselves must be as “healthy” and pure as possible.
Vegetarian capsules made with natural colorants meet this demand
The reality is that most capsules are made with synthetic coloring—which makes it hard to claim that a product is “all natural.” Natural colorants, such as those available for K-CAPS® vegetarian capsules, address this issue.
Yes, one option is to avoid the colorant issue altogether by choosing clear capsules. But why do that when natural colorants let you take advantage of the branding benefits of colored capsules, create a very visually appealing product and demonstrate to your customers that you really do understand their needs?
If you’re selling in Europe, being TiO2 Free is a must
Another thing to consider is that, effective summer 2022, Titanium Dioxide (TiO2), an ingredient in some colorants used to make capsules, has been banned for use as a food additive in food and food supplements by the European Commission. The pharmaceutical industry has been given a reprieve for at least another three years.
Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) generally recognizes TiO2 as being safe for human consumption, the regulators in Europe have a different opinion. By choosing vegetarian or vegan capsules that are TiO2 free you can meet these regulatory requirements while broadening your product’s appeal…and natural colorants are TiO2 free.
Natural colorants offer a number of benefits
These benefits include:
- Mask the capsule’s contents – Just like synthetic colorants, natural colorants can hide visually unappealing capsule contents from view.
- Reinforce your brand value – Never underestimate the impact that color has on your customers.
- Add nutritional value – Some of the pigments used in natural colorants, such as algae, actually add to the nutritional value of the end product.
- Support your environmental goals – Producing natural colorants does not involve the use of harmful and/or polluting chemicals.
- Support your “free of” claims – For example, vegan capsules made with natural colorants are generally non-toxic, non-carcinogenic, non-GMO, TiO2 free, starch free, animal product free, heavy metal free, and more.
Natural colorants do not affect capsule performance
If your formulation is appropriate for encapsulation in an HPMC vegetarian capsule, then you can safely choose an HPMC vegetarian capsule made with natural colorants. The pigment will not affect any of the capsule’s qualities, including performance on filling machines, dissolution profile, stability, shelf life, etc.
Regardless of the type of colorant used, HPMC two-piece capsules can be filled with powders, granules, beads, tablets, gels, pastes and liquids. Because of their lower moisture content (as compared to gelatin capsules), they are the best choice for hygroscopic or moisture-sensitive formulations.
There are four important things you should be aware of
If you want to use vegetarian capsules made with natural colorants to support your product’s “natural” and “clean label” claims, there are four important things to take under consideration:
- Some natural colorants can fade – Some (but not all) of the natural colorants will fade when exposed to UV or IR light for periods of time. This can impact your product packaging. Consult with your capsule provider regarding the light sensitivity of your desired colorant, and consider using opaque bottles or blister packs to address potential issues.
- Shades or hues can vary – Because natural colorants are natural, the color of your product might vary a little from one batch to the next.
- Clean label regulations vary tremendously – The same product and colorant that meets the one country’s standards regarding “clean label” claims may not meet the standards of another country. It seems that what is or is not “natural” is subject to opinion and interpretation.
- Not all vegetarian capsules are available with natural colorants – Simply put, some capsule manufacturers are not up to the task of using natural colorants, which can be far more challenging to work with in the manufacturing process than synthetic colorants are.
Plan to work closely with your capsule provider
Your capsule provider can provide color samples, check all the relevant pharmacopeias regarding whether your preferred color meets the standards for “natural” in all of your target markets, and more.
To view the full range of natural colorant options available for K-CAPS® vegetarian capsules, visit: https://www.kcaps.com/collections/natural-colorants. Note that the green chlorophyll capsules (i.e., capsules made with chlorophyll as the natural colorant) are particularly popular for CBD and THC encapsulation.
