While giving a presentation on Natural Colorants at the HBA Conference this past September in New York City, something peculiar happened that no one on my panel expected and that I found very surprising and needless to say quite interesting. One of the speakers presented on dye chemistry. The second speaker discussed global color regulations. My presentation on natural colorants was the last one and sparked the most response. I'll explain why.
In my presentation I mentioned certified organic colors. After going through a couple of additional slides people began walking out. I didn't give it a second thought. I wasn't upset that people were leaving my presentation. There were enough people left in the audience who genuinely wanted to hear what was being presented by all the speakers. At the end of our three talks we opened the floor to questions. This is where we learned what the reason was for the people leaving. Questions came up specifically asking what the difference was between natural colorants and certified organic colorants.