IN Brief:
- New concept set targets functional gummies and “better-for-you” confectionery.
- Colours are positioned as flavour- and function-aligned, plant-derived concentrates.
- Event focus reflects broader plant-based and functional ingredient momentum.
GNT has launched a new set of plant-based “functional colour” concepts under its Exberry range at ISM Ingredients 2026 in Cologne, putting natural colour systems into the same design brief as functionality and flavour cues for confectionery.
The concepts shown at the event centre on fruit gum applications, where colour is doing more than providing shelf pop. GNT’s approach is to use saturated, fruit- and plant-derived shades as an explicit signal of a product’s intended effect, while the formulation carries familiar “functional” additions such as vitamin C, caffeine, and botanicals including ashwagandha. The result is a tightly packaged proposition for brands trying to hold indulgence while moving label copy toward energy, focus, or relaxation territory.
From a technical standpoint, gummy is an obvious proving ground. It is colour-forward, trend-driven, and highly repeatable, but it can be unforgiving on processing consistency when colour systems bring in variability, flavour carryover, or stability constraints under heat and acid. GNT’s “colouring foods” positioning is designed to address that tension by leaning on edible-source concentrates processed primarily by physical methods, aiming for label declarations that read like recognisable ingredients rather than additive numbers.
That distinction sits inside EU classification logic that differentiates between selectively extracted pigments treated as colours and less selectively processed preparations treated as foods used for colouring. For confectioners, it can influence everything from pack copy to customer acceptance in clean-label channels, particularly in markets where “free-from artificial colours” has become a baseline rather than a premium claim.
GNT is also using the tradeshow launch to tie colour choices to sustainability and data availability, pointing to product carbon footprint figures across most of the Exberry portfolio. For larger confectionery groups, that increasingly matters because the carbon accounting burden is moving down the supply chain, and ingredients that arrive with usable, auditable datasets tend to win procurement time — even when their unit costs are higher than conventional options.
The wider context at ISM Ingredients is a continued push toward plant-based and functional sweets, with suppliers positioning extracts, fibres, proteins, and “added benefit” components as the next cycle of differentiation for confectionery that is still, at heart, sugar and texture. GNT’s play is to make colour carry part of that story without forcing manufacturers into exotic processing or unstable performance.
