Natural Blue Food Color: Butterfly Pea Flower Extract VS Gardenia Blue
Blue is one of the rarest colors in natural food ingredients. It is estimated that blue occurs in less than 1% of animals and in about 10% of flowering plants.
In recent years, driven by the rise of natural blue such as butterfly pea flower extract and gardenia blue, along with growing health awareness and clean-label trends, natural blue foods are winning over consumers with their unique colors, health-promoting qualities, and eye-catching visual impact.
On social media, blue foods are hotter than the daily diet. The “blue food” related videos have racked up tens of millions of views on TikTok and generated millions of hits on YouTube. Consumers are eager to photograph and share blue beverages like butterfly pea flower latte because the sky blue and sapphire blue hues evoke a refreshing, natural aesthetic that perfectly aligns with shareable moments. While blue foods may not appeal to everyone’s taste buds, they always capture attention and clicks.
Butterfly Pea Flower Extract and Gardenia Blue: Legality and Security
Precisely because natural blue color attracts such strong market attention and holds significant commercial potential, ensuring safety and legality is a crucial responsibility for businesses. Accordingly, explicit regulatory confirmation of its permitted applications serves as a critical catalyst for market growth.
Butterfly pea flower extract: In September 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowed butterfly pea flower extract to be exempt from certification, permitting its use in alcoholic beverages, tea, candy, dairy, frozen desserts, and more. In May 2025, the U.S. FDA further expanded the scope to ready-to-eat cereals, crackers, snack mixes, hard pretzels, plain potato chips (restructured or baked), plain corn chips, tortilla chips, and multigrain chips.
Gardenia blue: In July 2025, gardenia blue received approval from the U.S. FDA for use in sports drinks, flavored or enhanced non-carbonated water, fruit drinks, ready-to-drink teas, and both hard and soft candy.
Against the backdrop of the U.S. FDA’s announcement to gradually phase out synthetic colorants such as FD&C Blue No. 1 (Brilliant Blue) and FD&C Blue No. 2 (Indigo), as well as stricter restrictions on synthetic dyes imposed by regulatory authorities in Europe, Canada, and other regions worldwide. Regulatory confirmation of the scope and legitimacy of using butterfly pea flower extract and gardenia blue also provides more options for product innovation.
The blue hue of butterfly pea flower extract is light and ethereal, carrying a dreamy sense of romance and calm, often evoking images of starry skies and the interplay between sky and lake. Its pH-sensitive properties enable the creation of immersive color-changing experiences, adding interactivity and fun to the product.
Gardenia blue, meanwhile, boasts a deep sapphire hue—steady and serene. The tranquil depths of the ocean convey a professional and reliable brand essence. Its heat and light resistance also lend this natural blue an industrial advantage of controllability and longevity.
By leveraging these two highly representative natural blue pigments, businesses can not only create distinctly different visual moods but also align with diverse target audiences and consumption scenarios, making blue an integral part of brand storytelling and emotional communication.
Butterfly Pea Flower Extract and Gardenia Blue: Sources and Chemical Principles
The classic blue color of butterfly pea flower extract is attributed to natural pigments in the petals—anthocyanins, with the ternatin subclass being the most prominent. These compounds are generally extractable with water or ethanol, and the standout trait lies in their sensitivity to pH.
The raw material for gardenia blue is derived from the fruit of gardenia jasminoides, an evergreen flowering plant in the Rubiaceae family. The blue color is produced when geniposide within the fruit releases genipin during enzymatic hydrolysis or processing. This genipin then reacts with amino acids or proteins to form a deep natural blue known as “gardenia blue.”
Butterfly Pea Flower Extract and Gardenia Blue: Performance in Food Formulations
Butterfly pea flower extract is a pH-sensitive natural color, which enables its magical color-changing effect from red to purple to blue. Their inherent viral potential will take social media platforms by storm, making them highly favored by marketers and brand managers. For instance, Starbucks introduced a butterfly pea flower-based coffee, Butterfly Pea Lemonade Cold Brew, at its Asian locations. This beverage creates a striking purple-to-yellow-to-brown gradient through the reaction between citric acid and butterfly pea pigment, generating a visually impactful effect that went viral on social media. Malaysia’s Dream Color beverage shop creates multiple combinations of butterfly pea with various fruits, creating dream, gradient-colored drinks.
Gardenia blue, a heat-stable natural blue pigment, is perfect for products requiring reliable and consistent coloration. For instance, Meiji Melon Flavoured Milk incorporates gardenia blue. By combining aesthetic reliability with natural sourcing, products made with gardenia blue not only look attractive on the shelf but also resonate with consumers seeking innovative and Instagram-worthy experiences.
Butterfly Pea Flower Extract VS Gardenia Blue: How to choose?
Both butterfly pea flower extract and gardenia blue are FDA-approved natural dye ingredients, naturally derived, and meet clean-label requirements. They provide excellent alternatives to synthetic dyes FD&C Blue No. 1. The choice between the two depends on product characteristics and desired consumer experience: butterfly pea flower extract is best when storytelling, novelty, or pH-driven effects are key, while gardenia blue suits applications demanding reliable, stable natural blue tones. Importantly, the two are not mutually exclusive—they can complement each other in innovative formulations.
Additionally, beyond these two natural blue colors, BINMEI Biotechnology also offers spirulina extract, a protein-bound pigment derived from spirulina. Gained FDA approval in the United States and is classified as a coloring food in Europe. It holds broad application prospects in many countries like China and Japan.
Looking for natural blue solutions for your next innovation? For samples and technical guidance, feel free to contact us.
