Black Carbon
Black carbon, traded as vegetable carbon or plant carbon black, is a food colour consisting of finely divided elemental carbon produced by the controlled carbonisation of vegetable material. Typical feedstocks are wood, cellulose, peat, coconut shell and other plant residues. The finished colour is above 95 percent carbon on a dry basis, with mineral ash making up the remainder, and it carries none of the aromatic residues that its origin might suggest because the specification limits them explicitly.
It is the only widely authorised black food colour and gives a dense matte black at dosages of a fraction of a percent. Because it is a pigment rather than a dye, it does not dissolve; it is suspended, and the shade it delivers depends on how finely it is milled and how well it is dispersed. Poorly dispersed material shows as grey speckle rather than an even black.
Three presentations are traded: a very fine black powder, an aqueous dispersion stabilised with a hydrocolloid, and a lake style preparation on a carrier. It is insoluble in water, in oil and in ethanol, chemically inert, and completely stable to heat, light, oxygen and the full food pH range. That inertness is the reason it is chosen for baked, retorted and long life products in which organic pigments would fade.
We source bulk Black Carbon from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Guangdong. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
Please send the grade you need, the volume and your destination port, and we will come back with a solution and a price.
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- Function
- Colorant
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Very fine black odourless powder |
| Carbon Content, dry basis | 95.0% minimum |
| Identification | Insoluble in water and organic solvents, burns without residue beyond ash limit |
| Particle Size, D90 | 10 micrometres maximum |
| Loss on Drying | 12.0% maximum |
| Total Ash | 4.0% maximum |
| Acid Soluble Matter | 0.5% maximum |
| Alkali Extractable Matter | Filtrate not more than faintly brown |
| Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, benzo(a)pyrene | Complies with vegetable carbon purity criteria |
| pH, aqueous suspension | 6.0 to 9.0 |
| Lead | 2 mg/kg maximum |
| Arsenic | 3 mg/kg maximum |
| Mercury | 1 mg/kg maximum |
| Total Plate Count | 1000 cfu/g maximum |
Common Markets Grades
Powder grades are specified on particle size and on blackness rather than on an assay figure, since the carbon content varies little between lots. A typical colouring grade is milled so that most of the mass sits below 10 micrometres, with blackness measured against a reference. Coarser grades exist for applications where a grey or speckled effect is intended.
Aqueous dispersions at 5 to 20 percent carbon, stabilised with gum acacia, modified starch or a cellulose derivative, are the preferred form for liquid and semi liquid products because they remove the dispersion step from the customer plant and eliminate airborne dust, which is difficult to control with a pigment this fine. Glycerol and propylene glycol based dispersions are made for confectionery and for printing inks. Purity grades differ mainly in ash content and in the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon limit, and the food grade is always the acid washed material rather than the technical carbon black used in industry, which is a different product made by incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons and is not permitted in food.
Applications
- Sugar confectionery and liquorice, where it is the traditional black in both the mass and the coating
- Coated tablets, dragees and panned sweets requiring a black shell
- Cheese rind and wax coatings, giving the black rim used on some speciality cheeses
- Bakery decoration, icings, fondants and macarons
- Black bread, buns and dough products where the colour must survive the oven
- Ice cream, sorbet and frozen desserts in black and grey shades
- Edible printing inks and marker inks for direct food printing
- Pasta, noodles and wrappers as an alternative to cuttlefish ink
- Blending component in grey, brown and charcoal shades alongside caramel and red colours
- Pharmaceutical film coatings and capsule shells where a black opacifying pigment is required
China Manufacturers of Black Carbon
Top Black Carbon manufacturers in China.
Company names and logos are the property of the manufacturers themselves. They are listed here because our own directory records them as producing this ingredient. A listing is not an endorsement by them, and we do not represent them or speak on their behalf.
Regulatory Status
In the European Union vegetable carbon is the authorised food colour E 153 under Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008, with identity and purity criteria in Regulation (EU) No 231/2012 that define it as carbonised vegetable material and set limits on ash, acid soluble matter, unburnt residues and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The European Food Safety Authority has re-evaluated it and it remains authorised for the food categories listed in the annexes. Carbon black of mineral or petrochemical origin is a different material and is not covered by that authorisation.
In the United States there is no colour additive listing for carbon black or vegetable carbon for use in food, and it may not be used to colour food there. This asymmetry between the two markets is the single most important point to check before formulating, because a black product acceptable in Europe cannot simply be exported. JECFA has evaluated vegetable carbon and specifications appear in the Combined Compendium of Food Additive Specifications, with provisions carried in the Codex General Standard for Food Additives, so many markets outside the United States follow the European position.
Manufacturing Process
Selected vegetable feedstock, most often wood, cellulose or coconut shell, is dried, sized and charged to a retort or rotary kiln. It is carbonised under a restricted air supply at roughly 600 to 900 degrees Celsius, which drives off water, volatile organics and tar and leaves a carbon skeleton. Temperature control and the exclusion of free flame matter because incomplete combustion in an oxygen rich atmosphere generates polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which the food specification caps at very low levels.
The char is cooled and then washed with dilute mineral acid to dissolve iron, calcium and other mineral matter, and rinsed with water until the effluent is neutral and low in conductivity. It is dried and milled, usually in a jet mill or classifier mill, to the fine particle size that colouring performance requires, and air classified to remove oversize. Dispersion grades are made by wetting the milled carbon into a hydrocolloid solution and passing it through a bead mill or high pressure homogeniser to break agglomerates, then standardising to the declared carbon content and preserving the dispersion.
