Fading food color

Any food technologists around? I am having a problem with fading food color. I cook dried corn until it is fully hydrated and soft, add flavoring, a good dose of preservatives and orange food color (Sunset Yellow, Yellow #6). Bottle it in clear plastic bottles. Within in a week or so, most of the bottles have faded to a dirty yellow.

Any ideas on why this is happening and how it can be prevented?

No, it is not for human consumption. Although it does look and smell pretty darn good (at first).

Hi,

Once you have the corn in the bottles, what happens next?

Regards,

Then I cross my fingers and hope the color holds and I sell the stuff. You can see it here: http://www.wackerbaits.com/sftest/contents/en-us/d75.html

Are you using ascorbic acid as a preservative?

No ascorbic. Citric acid plus Na benzoate and K sorbate.

Yellow #6 is a pretty stable artificial color. Could it be that the corn itself is browning? If so, then you may need to add ascorbic acid to slow down the browning.

That's a thought. Did a quick google on ascorbic acid + yellow #6 and up popped "...Ascorbic Acid, (to Protect Color) Calcium Chloride, Yellow 6..." in a fruit cup ingredient list.

Do you have an idea of dosage do I have to do the work myself?

Got it, 0.03% max.