Dive Brief:
- Ingredients supplier Oterra is collaborating with sustainability tech platform HowGood to allow food companies to track the carbon emissions of natural colors.
- The partnership will provide carbon footprints for selected products in Oterra’s portfolio. The data can be used to advance customer sustainability plans and manage the carbon impact of their ingredients.
- The collaboration builds on Oterra’s 2030 sustainability strategy, which focuses on working with partners and suppliers to accelerate progress beyond the company’s own operations.
Dive Insight:
More food manufacturers are adopting natural colors as consumers reject artificial dyes. As demand expands, companies are investing in sustainability reporting and other metrics that are commonplace within more mainstream ingredients.
HowGood works with some of the world’s largest food companies to track emissions of more than 30,000 ingredients, chemicals and materials in the CPG industry. The data can then be used to automate reporting or boost decisionmaking around corporate sustainability plans.
“Granular sustainability metrics are no longer a nice-to-have for food companies – they’re imperative to making meaningful progress in sustainability commitments, improving transparency with suppliers and consumers, and understanding the true environmental impact of their products,” Rachel Calomeni, senior vice president of growth and innovation at HowGood, said in a statement.
Natural colors are more reliant on farming, and the increased amount of dyes needed to give foods a bright hue could exacerbate issues such as deforestation. Suppliers have already begun addressing the sustainability aspect of natural colors. Sensient has established initiatives involving intercropping to ensure crops are grown during otherwise fallow periods.
Oterra, meanwhile, has also explored gene editing technology to accelerate the breeding of new crop varieties that could enhance color or create novel shades. The company also uses advanced cultivation technologies. It is harvesting its Arctic Blue, for example, in a carbon-neutral vertical farming system powered entirely by geothermal energy.
Copenhagen-based Oterra has made several investments as demand for natural colors in the U.S. accelerates. The company opened a new and larger U.S. headquarters in Wisconsin last year, which includes a manufacturing facility and innovation lab.
“By combining Oterra’s deep expertise in naturally sourced colors with HowGood’s sustainability intelligence, we can help customers make more informed decisions and support the transition to a more sustainable food system,” Vera Karmeback, head of global sustainability at Oterra, said in a statement.
