JTN:
The Food and Drug Administration has said it will soon act on a longstanding petition to ban Red Dye No. 3, an artificial dye used in food in the U.S. but banned other countries.
Before she became a parent, Erin Seraydian says she didn’t give much thought to food coloring.
“Fifteen plus years ago, my sister-in-law, we were visiting them in Texas and they made a comment like, ‘The kids can’t have anything with dye in it because it makes them hyperactive.’ And my husband and I, at the time we weren’t married, we were like, “Oh, OK, you know, they must be crazy. Like that’s not a real thing,” Seraydian told me.
Years later when they had their own son, Jack, it no longer seemed “crazy.” more
Is there a safe red food dye? I’m not sure how to color my Christmas spritz cookies and color icing for sugar cookies without it. Beet juice isn’t red.
Raspberry is blue.
Lime is neon green.
And the flavors are likely artificial.
Not much we eat is real unless you grow and raise your own food today.
Believe me, that’s the tip of the ice berg. Exactly what are they pumping into our meat? What’s causing testosterone levels in young men to plummet? RFK will get to the bottom of this.
They gas a lot of meat to keep it pretty looking for the consumer.
My first job was in a fancy restaurant and many of our meat cuts were from a company that specialized in aged meat.
I remember it was a unpleasant purple color that you likely would not be able to sell in a supermarket. Most delicious tender cuts of meat I ever had.
I think the average IOTW-er here is fortunate to have grown up at a time when processed food, for the most part, was still in its infancy. Sure, we had Tang, Space Food Sticks, and Pop Tarts, but it’s unlikely our parents cached a big supply of this stuff. Now “food” like this is a mainstay in pantries and bought by the pallet load at Costco. So, what seems like a no-brainer to us is, apparently, a very big deal to today’s generation of young families. I suspect that food makers will catch on and start producing products with fewer additives, preservatives and artificial colors/flavors, but it will probably take a while before kids’ cravings change and they are satisfied with less sugar. I just feel very fortunate that we picked ripe pears, apples, cherries, and plums off trees in the yard; snacked on raisins and real cheese, or peanut butter-filled celery sticks as a child. Our family was too poor to stock up on processed snacks, and my mom was a health food nut before there was such a thing.
Different Tim
Good timing. My daughter brought down a bunch of beef. They raise a few cows and pigs. The kids compete in 4H. Today I’m smoking a Chuck roast. The wife mentioned that sure doesn’t look like store bought meat. It’s a bit purple. Not bright red like an open wound. Lol
@Abigail, wonder what a strawberry or raspberry puree would do. Probably wouldn’t darken enough with icing sugar but sure wouldn’t hurt in the flavor department depending on what it’s accompanying.
@Brad, we always hung our venison out for as long as the temp would allow to dry out well before butchering.
I’m a firm believer that it makes a difference. Others disagree.
What about read dye 40? Made from petroleum chemicals. It is literally in everything.
I’m okay with stuff not being artificially colored. It’s the flavor that needs to be worked on. I hope they make “cherry” drinks and Jello stop tasting like cough syrup. lol
As for fruit based coloring, all that I’ve tried to make at home turns purply, yellow, or brown. 😂
I know there are legit food coloring out there but they are like 20 bucks per ounce or something like that.
But like I said, I don’t care if my banana smoothie looks (natural) tan instead of (unnatural) highlighter yellow. 🤷♀️
@AbigailAdams — Good question. Some time back I dug into this a little bit and just did another shallow search to refresh my memory.
Although there’s an Ick! factor, cochineal is pretty safe (a small number of people are allergic to it). It’s icky because it comes from ground up bugs. But it’s been used for hundreds of years so at least it has some history to it and it’s “natural.”
Another red food dye is a combo of lycopene (from tomato skin) and beta carotene (from carrots).
I have not looked into consumer-level availability, I’ll leave that up to you!
Here’s a commercial natural red food dye company whose web site has some reference material you may find useful. I have no experience with their products, though.
https://www.lycored.com/food-colorant/
@Tony R —
I just found that red #40 is made from COAL, even yummier than petroleum! Crunchier, too! 🙄
Thanks, Uncle Al! I’ll check all this out.
Haha! I’m not too worried about a small amount of coal in my food. If my mom ever (rarely) burned something — skin on chicken, the bottoms of cookies — she’d tell us that charcoal was good for us! True story.
Setting aside what the jab has done fore us and not in love with the presentation / interruption of the “host,” this one is worth a look/listen. Ain’t short, but take the time…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7Sk-FVmngI
Johnson was a racist lummox. Carter meant well as most liberals do, but was incompetent and taken advantage of by the system. The Clinton’s (they were 2 Fer 1), Obama, and Biden (Obama) were plain evil. JMO.
I’ve got some homemade by me Montmorency cherry juice in freezer jars to use in case we get colds or something. It is pretty bright red! But you have to grow the tree and pick the cherries, say in early June I think is when it was. It was the first time I ever picked them last yr. Then you have to pit them too so can be some work but i think it delish as i like tart
Strange how our fed bureaucracy will ban gas water heaters and Ivermectin at the drop of a hat, but known carcinogens just, somehow, can’t be banned because someone paid the right bribes to the right people.
We live in a corrupt shit hole. End of story.
About damn time.