The Make American Healthy Again movement has forced executives in government and industry to reexamine whether approved practices such as adding fluoride to drinking water and artificial dyes to foods and beverages cause adverse health effects. Led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and driven by angry American consumers, Kennedy has even referred to several synthetic dyes as poisons, while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already directed food, beverage, candy, snack, pharmaceutical, nutritional, and cosmetic product manufacturers to phase out petroleum-based food dyes by the end of 2026 and transition to natural colorants.

What HHS, FDA, and their bureaucrats may or may not have considered is how replacing artificial FD&C dyes with natural colorants will impact the product manufacturing process. Natural colorants such as paprika, beetroot powder, spirulina, lycopene, and turmeric tend to be more fragile than artificial colorants, for example, and potentially explosive. Exposure to very high or very low temperatures, humidity, and even light can alter their properties and render the colorant less colorful or completely useless as waste. Natural additives may also degrade more quickly in transit and storage, requiring extra product to be used to achieve a desired color or appearance. This invites supply chain challenges and affects purchasing schedules and inventory management. Sourcing these natural dyes may also require finding new vendors. Since many of these natural colorants are derived from plants grown overseas, ensuring a consistent supply may be difficult and any tariffs may further boost the anticipated increase in costs.

Powder Handling and Conveying for Natural Dyes, Colorants

Manufacturers faced with transferring these sensitive natural ingredient powders, granules, and encapsulated powders from storage into a process safely and smoothly in precise amounts need to carefully examine their bulk material handling systems. It’s likely that existing conveying and/or manual material transfer methods will not be quite as compatible with natural alternative dyes and may, in fact, invite degradation in process and compromise product quality.

Pneumatic vacuum conveyors from Volkmann offer a fully enclosed, hygienic approach that protects these delicate ingredients from exposure to the plant environment. This eliminates temperature, moisture, and dust as potential contaminants, along with risk of contact with workers or pests. This also addresses any microbial concerns or risk of allergen contamination. In addition, our conveying systems operate in both dense phase and lean phase as needed to promote smooth material transfer and protect particle size and shape from degradation in transit for a diverse variety of natural and synthetic materials and ingredients.

Volkmann Vacuum Conveyors Prevent Dust Explosions – Automatically

Many dry additive powders used as minor and microingredients present the same explosion risk in powder handling and processing as their primary ingredient counterparts such as wheat flour, sugar, and corn starch. Thankfully, Volkmann vacuum conveyors are dust-tight and explosion-proof by design in accordance with NFPA codes and standards and in compliance with the ATEX certification. Combustible dusts and ignitable powders may be safely transferred in a Volkmann system without concern.

Volkmann vacuum conveyors offer another advantage for manufacturers switching from synthetic to all-natural dyes and pigments: they disassemble without tools in minutes for fast, frequent cleaning. This helps provide the equipment versatility manufacturers need to pivot as consumer tastes evolve and/or as government regulatory bodies shift their points of emphasis. Automatically transferring these powders from bags, bulk containers, or other storage containers directly into the conveyor for mixing and blending also reduces dependence on human labor, supports highly efficient operations, and helps minimize the impact of any costs increases due to the regulatory burden.

Have a challenging bulk material handling situation? The Volkmann engineering team is ready to help – contact us here.