Colour measurement for the food industry

Quality control and development solutions for virtually all food products.

 

Colour Measurement for Food and Ingredients

Konica Minolta Measuring Instruments offer traceable and trusted measurement technology for the food industry, including simple tristimulus colorimeters, versatile bench-top spectrophotometers, a range of controlled colour viewing solutions, and in-line hyperspectral machine vision systems.

Scalable solutions are available to help organisations and their wider value chain to specify, communicate, produce, and control colour, enabling them to increase productivity and reduce waste. 

  • Optimise processes
  • Improve consistency
  • Boost customer satisfaction
  • Reduce waste

The saying goes that "you eat with your eyes", and whether checking the ripeness of fruit and vegetables, the appetizing colour of a ready-made tomato sauce or the rich colour of chocolate, the impact of colour on what ends up in the consumer’s basket is undeniable.


Colour communicates freshness, flavour, and quality


Compared to the variety of parameters which require analytical monitoring in a food laboratory, colour represents the only immediately apparent quality indicator and deserves the appropriate attention through objective and repeatable measurement of raw materials, production processes, and the final product.

Whether measuring the colour of cheese, meat, wine, dyes, coffee beans, fresh vegetables, or baking contrast units (BCU) on bread rolls, our experienced teams can help you to establish a measurement process that is accurate and repeatable whether used in R&D or on the production line.

Konica Minolta has a global reach, with local sales and expertise to assist you in establishing a successful digital colour data system. Whether between supply chain partners, in development, in production or in QC, our teams can deliver a solution that meets your needs, and partner with you to scale that system as those requirements grow. Our colour matching software is supported by a dedicated team experienced in installation, training, and customization of the solution to optimise your colour workflows.

Our measuring instruments are supported by an extensive network of authorised service facilities to ensure that your instrument is maintained, accurate, and traceable all year round.

Benefits

  • Improve shelf appeal: Produce products with appealing and consistent colours that will win attention from consumers on competitive supermarket shelves.
  • Save time and remove subjectivity: Visual colour charts are not only subjective but can also take longer than instrumental control. Instrumental measurement generates traceable and actionable data useful for scaling production, statistical analysis and more.
  • Reduce waste: by controlling ingredients and processes, production becomes more consistent. By understanding the impact on product appearance of aging and exposure to heat, food businesses can control and adapt to combat undesirable visual changes that lead to waste.
  • Improved process control: Controlling the colour of ingredients and the effect of processing means that colour measurement can act as a simple process control tool.

Example Applications

  • Establish a colour index for brewed or aged product that aids in process control.
  • Adapt production from one ingredient supplier to another and establish tolerance for ingredient groups.
  • Improve value and quality of data from consumer preference testing.
  • Implement colour measurement to shelf life and stability testing.

Solutions for the Colour Measurement of Food

Colour QC Measurement for Solid Food

Improve consistency of products and perception of quality on the plate by developing exciting and realistic coloured products.

Colour QC Measurement for Liquid Food

Perform QC and process control colour measurements on liquid food and beverages for customer perception, shelf life and stability testing for products including dairy, beer, cider, wine, juices, etc.

Colour QC Measurement for Powders, Grains, and Granules

Achieve accurate and repeatable measurement for quality assurance and process control in production lines for granular / powdered food. 

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