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

[dragonwolf]

It doesn't surprise me that the same companies use different ingredients in non-US stuff. They do the same with sugar vs high-fructose corn syrup.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Artificial food dyes? Those coal-tar derivative things? No, haven't been seen here for years. No-one would buy them, so what would be the point of trying to sell them?

You mean Americans are still willing to buy that stuff??? That could be why the companies carry on selling it, then.

[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.

[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]

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.)

[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.

[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.

[prezzey.livejournal.com]

(England is not Europe?)

What aggravates me is that there are food dyes which are made of animals even while the product labeling contains no evidence of this unless you check an additives list. A relative bought a non-kosher sprinkler accidentally a few weeks ago and some of the red coloring was apparently made from ants. :X At which point even the people who are usually not interested in kashrut went EWWWW. (To be honest I'm not really grossed out by the concept of eating ants, but I'd prefer not to eat them because they are not kosher LOL!)

I'm not a vegetarian and I avoid non-kosher products anyway, but I imagine this would be a huge hassle for vegetarians...

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

(England is not Europe?)
No, Europe is that odd place the other side of the Channel. Full of foreigners :)

[tsukikage85.livejournal.com]

That would probably explain why Haribo gummy bears in the U.S. are so damn... intensely colored. Always weirds me out.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

The fall in artificial red and corresponding return to cochineal for colouring is, indeed, problematic for vegetarians. A lot of companies use beetroot though, which I suspect is for that very reason. (I would think that cochineal and beetroot produce pretty similar results.)