"Smarties" news and stories

I just love it when food and art overlap. Food artist Prudence Emma Staite has created a collection of works that recreate famous paintings out of chocolate Smarties. There's a wide range, from Pop Art to some more classical works.

The collection is showing at the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood in east London on Friday. It's all part of the Smartie Art Exhibit, which is celebrating the return of the blue Smartie.

Do you think Nestle would sponsor an exhibition if they brought anything else back? I'd have to do some research about what to reintroduce, but I bet I could think of something. What do you think would make a good food art project?

Source

Ask almost any kid what the lowest candy on the totem pole is and they will tell you wafer candies - assuming that they can even come up with the name of the category. These candies, which include the US Smarties (not the chocolate UK kind) and Necco Wafers, are made of pressed sugar and don't have nearly as much to recommend them as some of the chocolate, peanut butter and caramel candies that they have to compete with. That being said, however, they have been around for a long time and even if they are not the most popular candies, they always get eaten.

It's possible that the flavors have something to do with their inevitable consumption. One of the unusual things about these candies is that the coloring does not necessarily correspond to flavoring and that there are few cross-brand parallels. Lis of Riba's Ramblings put together a flavor vs. color comparison chart for four types of "popular" wafer candies - SweeTarts, Smarties, Necco Wafers and Sweethearts - so you'll know what it is that you're eating. Pink candies could be cherry or wintergreen. White wafers could be orange cream, cinnamon or mint. Green could be strawberry, lemon, lime or apple. The only color/flavor that was the same across the board was orange. Check out the rest of the table for a full breakdown.

Nestle's popular candy-coated chocolates, Smarties, are getting a makeover. Actually, it's more of a make-under. They are being stripped of artificial colors starting next month. The blue candy will be most directly affected, as there is no naturally edible dye to produce the same or a similar shade. This means that Smarties' blue candies will be white until a suitable color replacement can be found.

Nestle Rowntree, the UK branch, is responding to concerns that artificial colorings may have a direct correlation with hyperactivity in children, as a study done at Liverpool University has suggested. The chemical colors that will no longer be used are: Brilliant Blue (E133); Quinoline Yellow (E104); Sunset Yellow (E110); Ponceau 4R (E124); and Carmoisine (E122).  The US Environment Protection Agency has listed Brilliant Blue in particular as a possible cancer risk. Nestle Australia, on the other hand, has no plans to eliminate their blue Smarties and states that they have naturally colored candies available.

Source