MILWAUKEE, WI — The world of natural food coloring agents just got a big brighter.

The FDA has officially approved the food coloring group Sensient Colors’ butterfly pea flower extract as a color additive. The heat-stable water-soluble solution produces shades of vibrant blue, deep purple and natural greens.

Butterfly pea flower extract is the food and beverage industry’s first naturally derived blue food coloring source approved by the FDA and is heat and light stable. The water-soluble color agent creates a bright blue shade in products with a pH above 3.8 and a deep purple shade in products with a lower pH.

“The work on butterfly pea flower extract began more than a decade ago, and it is very gratifying to see the culmination of those efforts,” said Paul Manning, chairman, president and CEO of Sensient Technologies Corp.

The flower is commonly found throughout Southeast Asia, and the petals have been used to make caffeine-free herbal teas for hundreds of years. Several artisan chefs use the flower to add bright color to their dishes, but the additive is more complex to produce. The FDA approval required a specific ultrafiltration and concentration process to meet the federal regulations.

“While butterfly pea flower is relatively ubiquitous in parts of Southeast Asia, we discovered that the petals commonly grown for other uses were not ideally suited for the manufacture of standardized natural colors,” said Mike Geraghty, president of Sensient Colors LLC. “Through our ‘seed to shelf’ agronomy program, we invested to develop higher pigment petals in order to produce a highly stable, safe, and clean blue for modern food and beverage manufacturers.”