Color Measurement Of Cereal And Cereal Products

Color is an important attribute to the food industry. Consumers frequently look at a product and make a judgement decision largely based on overall appearance including color. Often color and flavor are directly related. As an example, for many breakfast cereals, if the product looks dark it will probably taste burnt, if it looks light it will probably taste underdone. In this example color variation and moisture content are also related. Manufacturing processes such as extrusion and baking can effect final product color. Ingredient color can also effect the color of cereal products. Thus to obtain and maintain the desired color, it is important to monitor and control ingredient color as well as monitoring the product through the manufacturing process.

Color assessment is done for several reasons. These include:

• To determine and document ingredient effect on product color
• Determination of color change as a result of storage, processing and other factors
• QC test to ensure consistency of ingredient color
• Quality tests to determine conformance to final product specification