Seeing red?
As anyone working in natural colors will tell you, finding a natural red color that is vibrant, but stable in high-pH dairy applications, or a red devil food cake, is a big challenge if you don't want to use Cochineal extract or carmine, says global application specialist Jennifer Brown.
"Carmine (crushed insects) is great, but not everyone wants to use it, because it's not vegan or vegetarian and it's not kosher. But if you use beet, it's not heat stable and it browns.
"If you use anthocyanins from purple carrots, cabbage and so on, they are more heat stable than beet, but they change color at a high pH in dairy applications, although they work well in fruit preparations that are used in yogurts.
"You can use lycopene from tomatoes, but it's very hard to get the same bright red vibrancy you'll get from synthetic red color like FD&C Red #40."