Properties:
Caramel is a beige to dark-brown confection made by heating any of a variety of sugars. These colorants are produced by the controlled heat treatment of carbohydrates rather than plain sugar. As the main source of carbohydrates, glucose syrups, sacarose and/or invert syrups, glucose and fructose monomers such as dextrose or related polymers in the form of commercially available food equivalents can be used. To speed up the caramelization process, quality catalysts can also be added. The process of caramelization consists of heating sugar slowly to around 170 °C (340 °F). As the sugar heats, the molecules break down and re-form into compounds with a characteristic color and flavor. Caramel color is a colloid. Although the primary function of caramel color is for coloring, it also serves additional functions. In soft drinks, it functions as an emulsifierto help retard the formation of certain types of "floc" and its light protective quality can aid in preventing oxidation of the flavoring components in bottled beverages.
Sources:
Caramel color is one of the oldest and most widely-used food colorings, and is found in almost every kind of industrially produced food, including: batters,beer, brown bread, buns, chocolate, cookies, cough drops, dark liquor such as brandy, rum, and whisky, chocolate-flavored flour-based confectionery, coatings, custards, decorations, fillings and toppings, potato chips, dessert mixes, doughnuts, fish and shellfish spreads, frozen desserts, fruit preserves, glucose tablets, gravy browning, ice cream, pickles, sauces and dressings, soft drinks (especially colas), sweets, vinegar, and wines.
Uses:
It is used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, and as a topping for ice cream and custard.
A variety of candies, confections, and desserts are made with caramel: caramel apples, pralines, nougats, brittles, crème caramel, and crème brûlée.
• Soft drinks: These account for the largest portion of caramel color usage in the world. Single-strength caramel colors are used in colas, generally in concentrations of less than four grams per liter. Double-strength caramel color, which adds less than one calorie per liter of beverage (making it the industry preference for diet drinks), is used in concentrations of less than two grams per liter.A third type of caramel color is commonly used in such soft drinks as root beer. It contributes to the formation of a foamy head and an attractive red hue.
In carbonated beverage concentrates, caramel color serves as an emulsifier to impede separation of flavor oils. A “plug” in the neck of a concentrate bottle or a “ring” in the neck of a beverage bottle is usually a flavor oil emulsion breakdown, caused either by the average flavor oil particle size being larger than three microns (if caramel color is the emulsifier) or a problem with the flavor oil-gum emulsion. Caramel color is sometimes the culprit; however, what appears to be caramel color are more frequently caramel-colored flavor oils that have come out of dispersion.
Ginger ale concentrates generally are alcoholic, so the caramel color must not only be negatively charged; it must also be able to withstand the alcohol concentration, or precipitation will occur. Such precipitation is often reversible by adding small quantities of water. The addition of too much water must be avoided, or clouding of the ginger ale extract can result. Caramel colors with the stability to withstand high alcohol concentrations are available and preferable.
Manufacturers of caramel color who use steel drums face the risk of product contamination caused by drum lining failure. This can begin with the simple bump of a forklift against the drum. In such a scenario, the container’s protective lining may crack, bringing caramel color into contact with raw steel. Soft drink caramels, with their 2.5 to 3.5 pH, will attack the metal, possibly causing pinhole leaks and increasing the iron content of the caramel. As a result, end products may have a metallic tang to their taste. Plastic drums prevent the possibility of this problem ever occurring.
• Alcoholic beverages: Caramel colors also appear in beers, whiskeys, wines, rums and liqueurs. Those caramel colors that are stable in 120 to 140 proof alcohols are the most commonly used.
Consideration must be given to the charge of the caramel color selected. Beer contains positively charged proteins. Therefore, the addition of negatively charged caramel creates a cloud that agglomerates into particles large enough to precipitate quickly. For this reason, positively charged beer stable caramels should be selected.
Negatively charged caramels (and, sometimes, specifically formulated spirit caramel colors) work well in whiskeys, wines, rums and liqueurs.
Wines clarified using gelatin and tannic acid require enough tannic acid to remove all the gelatin. Otherwise, the remaining positively charged gelatin and negatively charged caramel will precipitate and be removed in the filtration process, making the wine perceptibly lighter.
High (151) proof rums are best colored with a sucrose-based spirit caramel. These products tend to have a higher alcohol tolerance than glucose-based spirit caramels.
For improved stability in liqueurs (especially creme liqueurs), it is important to premix the caramel with alcohol before adding the other ingredients. When using dairy ingredients, it is necessary to control the pasteurizer temperatures to prevent scorching the creme. These scorched creme particles tend to rise, giving the impression of caramel color failure.
Color fading may occur when caramel colored alcoholic beverages are bottled in clear glass. Such products will evidence moderate fade under fluorescent lights; but in direct sunlight the rate of fade increases tenfold. Dark glass bottles are preferred for alcoholic beverages.
• Food products: Other products call for other caramel color characteristics. As an example, soy sauce, which can be preserved with up to 15 percent salt, demands a caramel color with the proper salt stability. Usually, positively charged caramel colors have inherent salt stability; special formulas provide stability in negative soft drink caramel colors. Positive types of caramel color give finished soy sauce a hue more closely resembling that of the naturally fermented products.
Still other products necessitate the addition of other agents to obtain the proper color. In chocolate milk, caramel colors can create an almost muddy appearance. That can be countered by adding approximately 0.01 percent by weight of FD&C Red #40, which imparts “Dutch” chocolate shades. Adding a small amount of certified blue and yellow produces more of a brown chocolate shade.
In cookies, very pleasing dark shades can be achieved by combining caramel color and alkali-processed cocoa.
Sausage casings are commonly dipped in solutions of caramel color and other colors to give them the desired tone. Here, one problem to guard against is that of bacteriological contamination of a solution held too long or inadequately protected. Caramel colors themselves are essentially sterile: with their high solids content and acidic properties, they’re not subject to bacterial attack until diluted.
Yellow spirit-type caramel colors combine well with FD&C Blue #1 to create a palette of greens. These formulations are used for such products as decorative sugars, like those sprinkled on Christmas cookies.
In some instances, caramel colors are easily incorporated into food products just as they are. Milk, for example, takes on a pleasing “eggnog” shade with the use of DDW #528, a yellow spirit-type caramel color. That color is also excellent for giving baked or microwaved poultry an “oven roasted” appearance.
Soups and gravies containing meat products and colored with caramel often give a consistent but slightly different shade before and after retorting. Both positive and negative caramel colors work well in this application, depending on the shade desired. Positive caramel colors generally contribute more red hue.
Spice blends normally incorporate caramel color powders with few problems.
Caramel color is used to enhance the attractiveness of baked goods by supplementing the inadequate and irregular coloring power of refined ingredients in rye, pumpernickel, specialty breads, fillings, toppings, cakes and cookies. Several types are used. These include single and double-strength liquid and powdered caramel colors. Caramel color in a powdered (less than 5 percent moisture), free-flowing state is prepared by removing water by drum or spray dryers. This dry product is particularly useful in food systems such as prepared mixes where free moisture is unwanted.
Positively charged caramel colors consistently work well in malt vinegar. However, cider and distilled vinegars can behave erratically in production. Negative caramel colors that work perfectly in one batch of vinegar may not work in the next batch of the same type. The exact cause of this problem is not known, but changes in bulk vinegar suppliers, even in alcohol and acetobacter nutrient sources may be involved. Vinegar bottlers are well advised to make a 24 hour lab test with a new batch of vinegar whenever they change anything.
In addition to those applications here detailed, caramel colors are used in a wide variety of products including canned meats and stews, table syrups, pharmaceutical preparations and meat analogs based on vegetable proteins.
Precautions:
Caramel coloring may be derived from a variety of source products that are themselves common allergens, such as lactose (from milk), dextrose (usually derived from corn), starch hydrolysates (from corn or wheat), or malt syrup (generally derived from barley). As such, persons with known sensitivities or allergies to food products are advised to avoid foods including generic caramel coloring or first determine the source for the caramel coloring before consuming the food.