Butterfly pea flower extract
Butterfly pea flower extractButterfly pea flower extract is a blue colour from the flowers of Clitoria ternatea, approved in the United States in 2021. It changes from blue to purple to pink as acidity increases, which is used deliberately in drinks and confectionery.
Where it is and isn’t permitted
| Jurisdiction | Status | Scope and limits | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Permitted | 21 CFR 73.69retrieved 2026-09-07 | |
| Codex Alimentarius | Not listedDoes not appear on this jurisdiction’s permitted list. That is not the same as being prohibited. |
What it is made from
Extracted with water from dried Clitoria ternatea flowers. The colour comes from anthocyanins, the same class of pigment that colours red cabbage and blueberries, and they shift hue with pH in the same way.
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
Every name it appears under
1 recorded name. A label may use any of them.
As it appears in regulation
- Butterfly pea flower extract
Hazard reference values
No reference value for this substance in the sources we hold.
Evidence and how bodies read it
Studies, and the differing conclusions regulators drew from them, are curated by hand rather than machine-read, and none has been written for this substance yet.
Sources for this page
- ecfr retrieved 2026-09-07
Full licence terms and publisher details on Sources. How this page is built and updated: Method.
Machine-readable:/api/v1/additives/butterfly-pea-flower-extract.json