What Is the Best Way to Measure the Color of Raw Grain?

With grain as one of the most important foods in the world, raw grain manufacturing and production are key to keeping people fed. It's imperative that your raw grain samples are consistent and well-controlled to fit consumer needs. Color measurement is one process you can use to maintain this control.

Factors in Color Measurement

Measuring the color of raw grain — or any food, for that matter — may initially seem challenging. Many factors go into how your buyers will judge your product's color, including:

• Grain type: As part of the grain manufacturing process, many types of grain come from various parts of the world, each of them with their own best uses. Though color does not determine purpose, you can identify which grains might be best suited for foods such as pasta or dough, each of which also comes with its own color profile.
• Lighting and angles: Have you ever looked at an object, looked away, and then seen it again in what seems to be an entirely different color? In these cases, the most likely culprit is lighting or angles. Even the slightest change in where or how you look at raw grain can trick your eyes into seeing it differently. When measuring the color of raw grain, consider how it will look under grocery store lighting and home lighting alike.
• Individual perception: Everyone sees color differently, even if they aren't colorblind or don't have another color processing disorder. This means that even employees and scientists won't give the same color observations over time. The best way to measure exact color is through equipment designed expressly for this purpose.

The Necessity of Spectrophotometers

Color measurement is best quantified through spectrophotometers — geometry-based equipment that perceives color the way human eyes do, then translates it into an exact numerical component. At HunterLab, we boast an entire suite of food-grade color spectrophotometers. Each tool is made to work with different types of food so that any manufacturer or distributor in the industry can regulate their products. For raw grain and other small-grain particles, we recommend ColorFlex EZ.

ColorFlex EZ is compact and built for desktops that don't have much room to spare. It connects effortlessly to printers and PCs so you can collect and store data for comparison against future samples. Our onboard software includes the most common color indices so you can measure colors using the ones that make the most sense for your needs.

Contact HunterLab for Raw Grain Color Measurement

Color measurement is the solution for product consistency and consumer satisfaction you've been searching for. Let us give you a quote on our equipment and help you get started with this process today.