Natural colourings In sugar free Sweets

Nowadays  there is much more public interest in the ingredients in our food so makers of traditional English sugar free sweets are increasingly taking pride in the fact that the colours they use are natural.

What is meant by natural colour? 

Natural colours have usually been extracted from plants but there are other sources.

Two common colours used in sweets are Beetroot red and Turmeric. These are used by Candy Makers and Stockleys, both makers of sugar free sweets

Recently when adding some new sweets from Candy Makers there were some colours which they described as natural.  As I had never heard of them,  I looked them up and indeed they were natural.  An example was Chlorophyllin, this sounds quite an intimidating technical name but it is actually a green colour which is derived from chlorophyll, the substance that makes leaves green.  Perhaps it is a pity that sometime the names for many naturally derived products look so unfamiliar and “scientific” while some other, completely synthetic, products seem to have been given a simple plain english title. 

To help my customers, I have decided to start adding links on my website to resources that explain the ingredients in the list for each sweet.  This will take some time but I hope it will be both useful and helpful when selecting the sugar free candy to purchase. 

People often contact me about the ingredients of the sugar free sweets I sell, and I will always be happy to give as much information as I can.