TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Foodmakers are turning to San Joaquin Valley farmers to help meet increased demand for fruits and vegetables that can serve double duty as natural food dyes.

"There's a mad dash in Europe to get synthetic dyes out and put natural ones in, and it's coming across the Atlantic," said Stephen Lauro, general manager of ColorMaker -- an Anaheim company that turns beets, berries, cabbages and carrots into dyes for everything from Gerber toddler foods to Tang breakfast drink. "It was dumb luck and we stepped into it."

Colorings are commonly used in processed foods to help them mimic the product they are supposed to represent -- for example, the red in some fast-food strawberry sundaes.

"We eat with our eyes, and the first thing you evaluate is color," Lauro said.

The interest in natural sources of food dyes stems from a Jan. 1 deadline from the European Union. After British researchers linked some synthetic dyes with hyperactivity in children, lawmakers decided to require foods with artificial colors to carry the warning: "May have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children."

The new rules have created two international standards for food additives. Companies that sell food in both countries often use petroleum-based dyes in the U.S., such as "Red 40" and "Yellow 6," but beet root, carrots and paprika in the U.K.

And the tide may be turning against artificial colors. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group, last year petitioned the FDA for warning labels and an eventual ban on petroleum-based synthetic dyes.

But even without a ban, U.S. consumers are already making a change toward natural products, and companies such as ColorMaker are working to meet the demand from food manufacturers.

Purple carrots, which Kern's own Grimmway Farms grows organically for the domestic gourmet market, are among the best sources of natural vegetable dye. Grimmway has been supplying juice for dyeing experiments at Cal Poly Pomona.

"Mom always said vegetables are good for you but didn't know why," said Paul Verderber, juice division manager of Grimmway. "The colors are causing the goodness."

What Mom didn't know was that purple carrots, which scientists say have been around thousands of years longer than their orange counterparts, are especially high in the antioxidant anthocyanin -- the free-radical fighting plant pigment that also colors blueberries and red wine grapes.

ColorMaker currently gets its purple carrot dye from an obscure source in Turkey, but would rather buy them in California. To make that viable, researchers must first figure out how to extract the same richness of color from varieties that can thrive in the Central Valley.

The company has teamed with Ann Marie D. Craig, Ph.D., an assistant professor of food chemistry at Cal Poly, to extract more concentrated anthocyanins to prepare the state's puny-but-potent purple carrot crop for its potential new duty.

"For something to come to the consumer market, it takes a significant amount of time and research," said Craig. "We are trying to get ahead on this."

Purple carrots are an especially attractive option because they provide as much anthocyanin as other sources, but are cheaper and easier to grow than blueberries.

Craig, who specializes in natural colorants, is looking for ways to stabilize anthocyanin-based vegetable dyes, which tend to turn brown when heated, become red in acidic foods and appear blue in alkaline.

Her research is sponsored by Cal State's Agricultural Research Initiative, which funds projects to create new markets for homegrown products.

"At the end of the day, California has the opportunity to become a major supplier," Lauro said. "With a small regulatory change, a brand-new market will develop and that will benefit carrots in the Central Valley."