FAQ's

1. Will Color Garden® pure natural food colors change the flavor of my food or beverage?
Most Color Garden® pure natural food colors will not contribute any flavor, mouth feel, or nutrition to your foods or beverages. However certain colorants such as red cabbage and spirulina do have natural earthy/musty properties than can impact flavor and aroma. This is also impacted by product variability, crop harvesting and age of colorants.

2. How much Color Garden® pure natural food colors should I add?
As much as you like, keep adding pure natural food colors until you get the visual appearance you want. For decorating, we do have a generally accepted guideline of 1 packet per pound of icing.

3. Are Color Garden® pure natural food colors bake stable?
Sometimes. Color Garden® pure natural food colors can “bake out” or fade in the oven. We have had some success by (1) lowering oven temperature, (2) baking thinner cake layers by using less batter, and (3) increasing the bake time. Under these conditions we have been able to bake brighter and more vibrant cake.

4. Will Color Garden® pure natural food colors mix directly into butter?
Yes and no. Color Garden® pure natural food colors are water-based and water soluble. They will not remain dispersed in the fat of butter without an emulsifier. We recommend adding eggs, liquid eggs, or liquid egg whites to your butter or buttercream. (we recommend always using pasteurized eggs/products).

5. Will Color Garden® pure natural food colors fade after a couple of days?
Yes. Color Garden® pure natural food colors are sensitive to light and will fade after several hours of direct full sunlight exposure. Store light and indoor house light typically causes Color Garden® pure natural food colors to fade in a couple of days. It is best to ice your cake, cupcakes, or cookies the same day you intend to eat them.

6. Do I have to store Color Garden® pure natural food colors in the refrigerator?
No. You can, if you want to, but you do not have to. Color Garden® pure natural food colors are packaged to be shelf-stable for one year in your pantry provided you do not open the plastic packet. Once opened, Color Garden® pure natural food colors should be used within a day. And consumed within a couple of days. However opened packets stored in the refrigerator will last a little longer than keeping in room temperature.

7. Why do you add ethyl alcohol to Color Garden® natural colors?
Color Garden® natural colors are extracted from fruits and vegetables. When color is extracted from fruits and vegetables, you also capture residual sugars and water. Whenever you mix water and sugar, bacteria will grow. Thus, we add less than one percent ethyl alcohol to retard the growth of any bacteria that might have survived the extraction process.

8. What is the underlying source of the ethyl alcohol?
The ethyl alcohol is made from sugar cane. Thus, the ethyl alcohol is Non-GMO as are all of the other ingredients we use in Color Garden® natural colors.

9. What is the underlying source of your vegetable glycerin?
The vegetable glycerin comes from palm.

10. Why are all the Color Garden® natural colors packaged in single-use, transparent plastic packages?
Natural colors are very different than the synthetic colors we are all used to. Plant based colors since they are made from plant material will begin to breakdown and oxidize as soon as they are opened. Think of a banana, when peeled it rapidly begins to brown due to oxidation. This will happen with any re-closable packaging including dropper bottles. Dropper bottles also cost a lot more and would further increase the price of Color Garden if we went down that path. In order to help with these issues we tried to formulate the colors to be used at once (1 packet per 1 pound of icing, playdough, mashed potatoes or any other fun craft) and use affordable packaging. We realize there are occasions where you may just need a few drops and certain colors like yellow and orange can go a long way with just a little color. But for the most part and on average when using most of our natural colors you typically need more color than just a few drops because they are considerably weaker in terms of color strength than synthetic colors, which is another reason for the packet size. Dropper bottles and synthetic artificial colors work really well, because they are very strong and a few drops is often all that is needed.

11. What is the expected shelf-life of Color Garden®?
Color Garden® is formulated to last for about 12-18 months from the date of manufacture. A lot code and an expiration date are printed or stickered on each box. Some colors will last longer than 12-18 months , but the printed best before date is primarily in reference to color strength and quality based on a minimal expected standard based on our more sensitive colors such as Red and Blue. Variation will sometimes occur to crop availability and variability in nature.

12. Can I color hair with Color Garden®?
Yes and no. Color Garden® will impart color to human and pet hair, but it will promptly wash out. Color Garden does not truly stain hair; rather, it just coats and colors hair.