Today’s entry is another post in the Better Choices series. Get caught up on why I am doing this here, the first post here and the second post here. This is the fourth entry and will be April’s topic, even though it is only the end of March. I wanted to get it to you a few days early in time for the Easter holiday. We are talking dyes, definitely a popular topic around Easter when kids are dying easter eggs. If you follow the Cooking For A Better Tomorrow Facebook page, you probably remember me sharing the petition two bloggers started to get Kraft to remove artificial food dyes from their macaroni and cheese. They are even getting national news recognition, so you might have seen them on your favorite news channel. Kraft sells a macaroni and cheese product in the UK reformulated without the use of artificial dyes. In fact, many companies have reformulated their products to not contain artificial food dyes in other countries. Check out their youtube video here, to learn more.
So what is the deal with food dyes? Why are they used? Artificial dyes are added to foods and drinks to help provide an attractive color, hopefully making the product more appealing to consumers. Companies are said to use artificial dyes, because they are much cheaper than natural dyes.
Interesting point though, some countries have opted to not include artificial dyes in their products based on research and consumer outcry. The United States took a different route - since they haven’t been proven scientifically unsafe yet (in the FDA’s eyes), they can continue to be used. So basically other countries philosophy is to not use until proven safe, whereas the US uses and waits years until it is proven unsafe - by then likely already causing harm. (This applies to much more than just dyes). If I recall, smoking was not seen as an unsafe product for many years but that didn’t make it good for you. In fact, smoking is now found to have a direct link with cancer. Furthermore, there have been 91 dyes over the years that the FDA has now banned or restricted, after they were once previously said to be okay with being used. Makes me question a bit how the FDA comes to their decisions...
The ones most say you should watch out for are: Blue 1, Blue 2, Citrus Red, Green 3, Orange B, Red 3, Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6
The two bloggers mentioned above summarized some points to consider on their petition site quite well.
Artificial food dyes...
- Are man-made in a lab with chemicals derived from petroleum (a crude oil product, which also happens to be used in gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt, and tar).
- Require a warning label in other countries outside the US.
- Have been banned in countries like Norway and Austria (and are being phased out in the UK).
- Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 are contaminated with known carcinogens (a.k.a. an agent directly involved in causing cancer).
- Cause an increase in hyperactivity in children.
- Have a negative impact on children’s ability to learn.
- Have been linked to long-term health problems such as asthma, skin rashes, and migraines.
- Add absolutely no nutritional value to the foods we are eating and are solely used for aesthetic purposes only.
Here is a bit more explanation and some citations.
The FDA even states “exposure to food and food components, including AFC (artificial food colors) and preservatives, may be associated with behavioral changes, not necessarily related to hyperactivity, in certain susceptible children with ADHD and other problem behaviors, and possibly in susceptible children from the general population.”
Dyes are everywhere. Reading your food labels is the only sure way to avoid foods with dyes and of course consuming whole foods will decrease the likelihood of eating foods with dyes.
So, while you aren’t consuming the shell of a hard boiled easter egg that is dyed, this is a great time to start practicing with natural dyes. And if you are dying the egg white, as I have seen floating around as an easter idea this year - then you are in fact consuming dyes and may really want to consider using natural dyes if this is important to you.
I did a lot of research and found the most commonly used natural dyes. The most popular are blueberries for a blue/purple, beets for a pink/red and turmeric for yellow. I also saw other suggestions such as spinach, carrots, chili powder, red cabbage, paprika, grape juice, and coffee.
The main steps in working with natural food dyes are:
- Boil 2 cups of water
- Add your mix ins (listed above) - I found with the exception of spices, a 1:1 ratio is best
- Simmer for 10 minutes
- Strain chunks of mix ins
- Add tsp of vinegar (helps promote a rich color)
- Cool to room temperature
- Dyes your hard boiled eggs
First up for me was turmeric - went great and gave the egg a nice rich yellow/orange color.
Better Bonus Tip: If you are not caring about taste with your dye (ie - not eating the egg shell), consider using other powdered spices. I’m wondering if grinded up green dried herbs (parsley, dill, basil) would also work.
Then I moved to the beet, spinach and carrots. These didn’t go as well as I had hoped, especially considering these were some of the ones I saw over and over as recommended. The beets changed the color of the water to a deep pink, but for some reason it wouldn’t absorb on my egg. The spinach and carrot didn’t concentrate the water hardly at all. I think I would have had more luck if I juiced these foods, but didn’t go to those measures this time, just simply added them to the water.
Then I moved to blueberries. This did go well, so I decided to just stick with the fruit method and did some cherries to get a red color also. To me this is more appealing anyway, because if I want to continue to use natural dyes in other foods, I would rather have a hint of fruit flavor instead of beet juice.
Better Bonus Tip: Use a masher to help the fruit along in the water. Once your 10 minutes is up, use a strainer to remove the fruit chunks and press the back of a spoon onto the fruit to help release any last juice. Keep the fruit for a topping on pancakes or waffles - eat as is or with a bit of sugar mixed in.
Overall, I think the ones that worked, worked well. These eggs might be considered not as bold of a color as you would get with the bottled artificial dye, but your kids won’t know the difference, especially if this is their first time. The yellow egg is from tumeric, blue/purple from blueberries and reddish color egg is from cherries.
Lessons learned: Try with white shell eggs. I think some of the less concentrated dyes would have absorbed better with the white shell eggs, but I just used what I had at my house this time and that was brown shelled eggs. Also, I was not very patience with this process, but adding the eggs to the liquid and walking away for awhile, would have likely produced the color I was looking for with some of the other dyes.
My next goal would be to see how natural dyes work in frostings. I don’t bake much, but will give it a try, so stay tuned.
I hope you all have a happy, dye free Easter!
~Ashley
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