Colour

Colour is one of the markers Open Food Facts uses to classify a food as ultra-processed (NOVA group 4).

What it is and why it counts

Colours are added to restore colour lost in processing or to make a product look more appealing.

Cosmetic additives

NOVA calls these additives "cosmetic": they change how a product looks, feels or tastes rather than keeping it safe to eat. Their presence is one of the two defining signs of an ultra-processed food.

Function

Colour: Colours are substances which add or restore colour in a food, and include natural constituents of foods and natural sources which are normally not consumed as foods as such and not normally used as characteristic ingredients of food.

Functional class definitions from the EU food additives regulation, via Open Food Facts.

More about colour on Wikidata

Where it turns up

Colour appears in 4,063 of the 40,000 products on this site (10%).

Candies 111 of 486 products
Crisps 92 of 1,471 products
Yogurts 89 of 1,210 products
Sodas 71 of 612 products
Corn chips 60 of 359 products
Margarines 58 of 184 products

Products containing colour

Showing the 60 most popular of 4,063.

How the NOVA classification works