How to Achieve Colour Consistency in Ready to Eat Food?

Ready to eat food is a boon for those who don’t know how to cook. And sometimes due to busy schedule, people don’t have ample time to cook for themselves. This includes a population who are either students or working professionals living away from their families. Ready to eat food manufacturers produce heat and eat options for almost every dish popular in the region. To give them an enticing look, they are using additives and taste enhancers. This has always made me wonder how are they maintaining a level of consistency in the appearance since a year?

Despite the change in the colour of raw materials used in preparation, change of chefs and recipes, but there is no change in the appearance. The secret behind their consistent colour appearance, there is a huge quality check department with advanced instruments to check the colours of the dish. The quality managers are more of colour managers. They are equipped with food colour measurement instruments to keep a close tab on the variation in the appearance. Devices like colorimeters and spectrophotometers are popularly used in food industry.

To get that perfect colour for every recipe, every ingredient is measured before its use. Spices, raw vegetables, cereals and other ingredients colour are measured by quality check department.

What is a colorimeter?

It is an optical device that is capable of quantifying the colour of the samples. It is a smart food colour measurement device and captures the image of master and compare it with the sample. Testronix offers different models of colorimeter that have huge internal storage and are capable of storing up to 20000 samples with approx. 100 standards. The device work on the principle of measuring the absorbance of light by the solution. It has an incident light, detector and aperture. For accurate observations, the surface has to be preferably even. It is capable of measuring the colour of liquids and powder. 

What is spectrophotometer?

A spectrophotometer is also an optical device that quantifies the colours. It measures the intensity of the light that is absorbed by the solution. This is a very efficient device to measure and compare the master with the samples. Spectrophotometer offered by Testronix are portable devices which have an added advantage of easy usage in comparison to other products. For more precise readings, it is always advised to measure the colour on a flat surface. Uneven topography of the sample would lead to interference of external light. This might affect the observations.