Natural colour is one of dairy’s most powerful and underused premiumisation tools. As journalist Teodora Lyubomirova reports for DairyReporter, colour shapes consumer expectations before taste and mouthfeel are factored in — yet dairy brands have been reluctant to exploit it.
Research consistently shows that colour intensity and hue can radically alter consumer perceptions and determine a product’s success. Regulators are phasing out the worst artificial dyes, and consumers increasingly prefer natural colours — though duller hues have sometimes led to slower sales. Dairy benefits here: the sector’s association with naturalness and minimal processing supports its health halo even before colour cues are added.
Milk is ‘white’? Not quite
Irish dairy has long leveraged colour for premiumisation. Kerrygold’s iconic golden wrapper signals grass-fed provenance semantically and visually. But most butter brands have underexploited colour as a quality marker, defaulting to ingredient or origin callouts instead. Short, evocative colour descriptions — ‘naturally golden’, ‘grass-rich hue’ — could convert consumer intent into sales more effectively.
Jersey cow’s milk, resurgent in the UK, is associated with a cream-on-top experience. ‘Gold top’ claims signal provenance and indulgence, but descriptors such as ‘naturally ivory’ or ‘cream-tinted’ could reinforce the premium message further. In cheese, annatto adds bolder hues to many hard varieties; unadulterated cheeses are naturally paler — and colour claims could help those products differentiate while signalling closeness to nature.
The same logic applies to crème fraiche and double cream — two segments ripe for reinvention. Highlighting natural colour credentials is a low-risk, high-reward move that could help shoppers reimagine the richness of these traditional staples. If colour sets the stage for how flavour is perceived, better communicating dairy’s natural colour cues could play a crucial role in elevating perceived quality — and justifying a premium price.
Source: DairyReporter
