Cloudifiers in the Beverage Industry
Food and beverage manufacturers know that how products look is as essential as how they taste and smell. “Mouthwatering” is often in the eye of the beholder. To ensure this Pavlova’s dog-like eye-brain response, manufacturers add cloudifiers or clouding agents to create an appealing opalescence –pleasing cloudiness and thickness – to low fruit juice content beverages.
This effect mimics the look, mouthfeel, and experience of natural plant cell pectin, oil, or protein particles, helping drinks look and feel more natural and attractive. In addition, this thicker consistency communicates the functionality of authentic, freshly squeezed fruit or juiced vegetables.
Cloudifiers are also used to mask sedimentation or ringing, where particles sink to the bottom or flavoring or coloring oils rise to the surface during storage. In addition, producers may add titanium dioxide to enhance color.
Who Uses Cloudifiers?
Clouding or turgidity agents add desirable appearance and texture in fruit juice, enhanced water, carbonated soft drink, dilutables, mixers, and alcoholic beverage segments. According to Future Market Insights, 71% of consumers now avoid artificial flavors, while 63% reject artificial colors. Users are looking for clean labels, especially in beverages1. Consumers also prefer familiar, recognizable, and easy-to-pronounce ingredients.
As a result, the 2022 to 2032 Cloudifier outlook is rosy. With an increasing demand for improved nutritional content and quality, and more natural constituents and additives, the cloud emulsions market is expected to reach $1200.35 million by 2032. This growth represents a CAGR of 7.3% from $592.8 million in 20222.
What Is a Clouding Emulsion?
An emulsion comprises tiny droplets of one liquid dispersed in another insoluble liquid. This suspension, rather than complete mixing, makes the product’s active ingredients more long-lasting, stable, and cost-effective. A clouding emulsion is a food additive commonly comprised of fractions of neutral-flavored oils, typically citrus fruit extracts (lemon, orange, or melon) or palm oil. It also contains stabilizers, such as Arabic gum, and densifying or weighting agents to prevent “ringing”, such as damar resin. These components are white, with no taste or aroma – neutral enough to include without compromising existing flavor, color, or fragrance profiles.
Manufacturing involves dispersing the stabilizer in water, premixing the citrus oil with the weighting agent, and combining it with the water mixture to create a pre-emulsion. Finally, the pre-emulsion is passed through a high-pressure homogenizer to yield the final globule-sized cloudifier.
Appearance Matters – Inside and Out
Clouding agents such as Arabic gum – naturally occurring resin from the Acacia tree- are non-toxic, safe to consume in beverage-sized amounts, and may offer potential health benefits such as soluble fiber. However, recent Sensient research around consumer perceptions indicated that 80% would hesitate to purchase a product with any gum or resin listed on the label3. These names sound too unfamiliar, artificial, or processed.
In response, innovative producers have developed a way of combining color and cloud emulsions, using fewer elements, and allowing the removal of unappealing-sounding compounds from the label. In addition, these combined formulations improve compatibility and efficiency while helping to obviate many of the challenges of working with multiple emulsions.
Beyond relying on clouding agent creativity and innovations, ensure all components are pure and natural by depending on Advanced Biotech. We produce clean, plant-based, and EU-certified flavor and aroma molecules for safer, greener, more efficient, and more consumer-centric outcomes.
Advanced Biotech for Elevated Beverage Aesthetics and Credentials
Explore our range of oils, extracts, and more today for enticing and naturally aromatic and tastier products. Please contact us for more information.
1,2 https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/cloudifier-market
3 https://sensientfoodcolors.com/en-ap/research-development/natural-cloudy-beverage-emulsions/