And finally, a whole bunch of links on food dyes

[conuly]

First, just to review, where does food dye come from? Mostly, icky stuff. Either don't eat it or don't think about it, is my advice.

But you know what? Apparently, artificial food dyes aren't used in England or in Europe. Even when it's made by the same company. They sell the product in the US, and then they sell a slightly different, artificial-free product overseas!

Also, here's some more on food dyes.

And a little more. I'm done!

Comments

[dandelion.livejournal.com]

No, they are still available in the UK: they're in medicines, for a start. Tartrazine is used in liquid medications as a yellow colouring and sodium benzoate as a preservative (and as an active ingredient for the treatment of a specific set of illnesses, but that's unusual).

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Really? What a strange place for them to be kept.

[dandelion.livejournal.com]

Well, it's probably because synthetic dyes are also still available in the food colouring section of the supermarket - Silver Spoon's red contains Ponceau 4R and their green has Brilliant Blue FCF, both apparently derived from petroleum. I think it's disingenuous of the article to suggest we don't use synthetic colours here, because Sainsbury's thinks otherwise...

(That said, I really don't think artificial colours, at the quantities used in cooking, are that awful. Often unnecessary, but I honestly doubt they're associated with the evils people say they are - else they wouldn't be in medicines. Things might be slightly different when you look at American red velvet cake recipes calling for two bottles of food colouring, of course.)

[conuly]

Things might be slightly different when you look at American red velvet cake recipes calling for two bottles of food colouring, of course.)

Or when you're eating a heavily boxed diet. Admittedly, then you have greater problems, but that's beside the point.

[conuly]

When I remember, I try to get dye-free OTC medicines... but when I forget we're stuck with it until it expires! We don't use cough syrup often enough to run out.

[dandelion.livejournal.com]

Honestly? The cough syrup's probably more likely to lead to an adverse effect (roughly 1 in 8 patients) than any of the dyes in it - and only tends to work in around 1 in 7 patients anyway.

[conuly]

Not cough syrup, fever reducer. If they're coughing, that's what honey is for. (Yes, I know I said cough syrup, but I expect everybody reading my comments to be psychic and infinitely tolerant of me making mistakes of speech.)

And I just think the dyes are icky. Yes, I use them when making those cupcakes for the bake sale... but as far as I'm concerned, if there are people willing to feed their kid any old thing, it's not my problem.