DDW’s very first Color in the Kitchen video is a special edition showing viewers how to color Easter eggs using a variety of natural colors. Hand painting hard-broiled eggs is an Easter tradition enjoyed by families around the world. Instead of using synthetic dyes, this recipe calls for natural colors made from simple ingredients that are found at almost any grocery store. This is perfect for parents and children to do at home!

Watch the video for a step-by-step guide from Jennifer Brown, Global Application Scientist at DDW.

Jennifer Brown illustrates how to easily color hard boiled eggs using natural ingredients that are widely available at most grocery stores, eliminating the need for synthetic colors!

As discussed in the video, any of the following natural ingredients can be used to create a rainbow of naturally colored Easter eggs:

GRAPE JUICE

Color: Purple (Violet)

Preparation: No preparation time needed! As Jennifer states in the video, nothing special needs to be done to the grape juice prior to coloring the egg.

ANNATTO

Color: Yellowish Orange

Preparation: Cook annatto seeds in oil for approximately one hour, then drain the juice into a container to be used for coloring the eggs. Since the annatto juice will be oily, be sure to gently wipe the eggs after coloring them to remove excess oil.

TURMERIC

Color: Yellow

Preparation: Turmeric powder is widely available in the spice section of most grocery stores. No preparation time is needed.

YELLOW ONION

Color: Golden Brown

Preparation: Cook the skin of the yellow onion to reduce it to a brownish liquid. As Jennifer says in the video, “This gives you a nice brown color” for your Easter eggs.

RED CABBAGE

Color: Depending on how it is prepared, red cabbage can create blue, red, pink or purple hues

Preparation: Chop the cabbage into small pieces, then cook the cabbage for a few minutes or until it has softened.

Drain the cabbage juices into a small container to be used for coloring the hard boiled eggs.

Red cabbage is capable of producing a variety of colors.

Unaltered red cabbage will naturally create a blue to purple hue for your Easter eggs.

For pink to red, add a little lemon juice to your cabbage.

For green or blue, add baking soda.

How it works: the lemon juice raises the cabbage pH (making it more acidic) while the baking soda lowers the pH (making it more alkaline). This reaction causes the juice to change color. This is a principle of food chemistry that is very important in creating natural colors to be used as dyes for food and beverage products around the world. Interested in a career in food science or in learning more about naturally derived colorings? Visit http://www.naturalcolors.com for more information

BEET JUICE

Color: Red

Preparation: Chop some red beets and then cook for a few minutes or until soft. Drain the beet juice into a small container to be used for coloring the hard boiled eggs.

TIPS FOR ADDED CREATIVITY:

After dying the eggs, allow them to sit for a few minutes. As the color dries, each egg will continue to display new tones, shades and variations of each colorful hue. Note that the color in the container is not necessarily going to be the color you will get. It’s normal for your eggs to turn a lighter colored hue than the dye. You can watch our video for some of our before-and-after shots, and then try your own!

This is a fun coloring opportunity for Easter egg hunts or even school science projects, and is perfect for families with children to try at home!

Let eggs soak longer in each color for more vibrant hues.

Try dipping one egg in multiple colors to create new colors and patterns.

Wrap rubber bands around the egg prior to soaking to create a pattern of white stripes.

Soak the eggs, let them dry, and then use wax crayons to draw additional designs.

Forget synthetic colors! These recipes use natural colors made from ingredients that are readily available for purchase at most grocery stores. In addition, we also have a list of DDW caramel color recipes here. These are perfect for cooking at home!

Featured Recipe:

Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs

Color in the Kitchen: Naturally Colored Easter Eggs

In the first episode of DDW’s new consumer-focused video series Color in the Kitchen, Application Scientist Jennifer Brown shows home chefs how to dye hard-boiled eggs using natural colors instead of synthetic dyes. Released just in time for Easter, this short video tutorial is perfect for parents and children:

Purchase Natural Coloring from DDW

Natural dyes can be created from ingredients that are available at most grocery stores. Each recipe lists required ingredients used to create the natural colorings for the food or beverage product you’ll be creating.

Does your business need natural coloring for a project? DDW’s sales team is happy to help you find the solution that’s right for you.

“Colour plays a key role in food choice by influencing taste thresholds, sweetness, perception, food preference, pleasantness and acceptability.”

– Fergus Clydesdale, Ph.D.

DDW’s Jennifer Guild, Food Science and Regulatory Manager, recently presented at the Food Ingredients “Advances in Natural Color” conference, which was held in London, UK, in February 2012. Guild, who has appeared in numerous Expert Answers interviews on natural coloring, discussed natural colour & colouring foodstuffs in a seminar covering how to “successfully navigate through an uncertain regulatory environment and prepare for future legislation.”

During the presentation, Guild discussed topics including:

• regulatory challenges in the natural colouring industry
• how to avoid natural colouring challenges
• colouring foodstuffs
• regulatory considerations when working with natural colours
• the Southampton Six
• caramel colour
• carmine sensitivity
• adulteration
• regional approvals
• application limits
• labeling options
• …and more

Why Colour is Important

The colour of food and beverage products is extremely important. “If food does not taste good, people will not try it again,” says DDW Chairman and CEO, Ted Nixon. “If it doesn’t look good, they may not try it at all.”

This same point was addressed by another industry expert, Kantha Shelke, in a recent interview with ABC News:

Benefits of Food Colour

David Schmidt, President and CEO of the International Food Information Council Foundation, notes that colors are often added to consumer food and beverage products to “reduce color loss that often happens from exposure to air, to light, to extreme temperature conditions or otherwise storage conditions.” Adding natural coloring to foods and beverages enhances the “natural variation that occurs in colors,” Schmidt says, resulting in a greater “vividness and brightness of colors that occur in nature.”

Downloads and Additional Resources on Natural Colour in Foods:

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