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FOOD MAKERS wishing to impart a bright hue to their products can choose from among a full range of synthetic colorings. But changing consumer preferences and the specter of new regulations have sent food industry insiders in search of natural alternatives. It’s not exactly a rainbow of possibilities, they are finding. Cheese makers are fortunate that plant-based yellow and orange food colors have been available for centuries. They still use annatto—derived from the seed of a tropical tree—to give cheddar its distinctive look. Now, the rest of the food industry is looking to ingredient makers to complete the color wheel with stable, naturally derived red, purple, green, and blue. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t get a call—or five—asking how to substitute FD&C red No. 40,” says Theodore Palumbo Jr., technical director and color chemist at International Food Craft, an ingredients supplier. Red No. 40&known by only a few ...