Caramel Color in Pet Food

Manufacturers of per food have responded to those customers who are concerned with synthetic colors. Some dry pet food manufacturers choose caramel color to reduce the use of synthetics. Caramel color alone can replace a combination of three certified colors – FD&S Red #40, FD&C Yellow #6, and FD&C Blue #2 – which blended together make brown. The result is a product with a cleaner label and a meaty appearance at an equivalent cost to synthetic colors. Using caramel to replace synthetics also solves a common problem in digestion that occurs when the body absorbs red colors, leaving the blue and yellow to show a "green effect" in pet stools.

Caramel color standardizes batch-to-batch variation. Most of the beef-flavored and liver-flavored pet products packaged in cans contain liquid caramel color. Without caramel color added, the meat and by-products would appear grayer. Caramel is heat stable at standard retort processing temperatures.

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