"color" news and stories

The San Francisco Chronicle did a taste test of pure pomegranate juices, more and more of which have been finding their way onto shelves and into refrigerators in grocery stores as the antioxidant-rich fruit gains popularity. Their tasting only dealt with the pure juices (not blends) and tasters picked POM Wonderful as their favorite, over brands like L&A, Langers, Frutzzo, Knudsen and Trader Joe's. The brilliant jewel color of the juice was mentioned several times by tasters, but the "blend of sweet and tangy" flavor won over 4/5 of the panelists.

Pomegranate juice, particularly POM, isn't cheap and sells for around $3.99 for 16-ounces. While it won against other pomegranate juices, is it really worth buying over other kinds of juice from a taste perspective?

I liked the blueberry-pomegranate blend more than the pure pomegranate juice, myself, and I still think that I'd much rather eat some actual pomegranate than drink either of the beverages.

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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.

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As though we don’t have enough dieting fads thrown at us from all directions, there is a new one which suggests that the color of your walls could be making you fat. According to dietician Lisa Dorfman, blues and greens will make you less hungry than warmer colors, like reds. Lighting is also important to dieters, as those who eat in dim light are more likely to binge.

Excuse me while I take a brief break to paint my kitchen. But what of the non-paintable surfaces? Does laminate make you feel full, or should you use a tile floor?

This is the most ridiculous dieting idea that we have seen yet. Changing the color scheme of your house in an attempt to alter your diet is like deciding to buy air freshener for you car after it's been in an accident: it doesn't really hurt anything, but it doesn't directly address the problem in the way that eating less food (or getting the car repaired) would. Putting aside the issue of actual color choice, there is one thing about painting your walls that will keep you out of the kitchen for a while: very few people actually enjoy the smell of wet paint and you certainly won't want to be eating in a freshly painted kitchen. Just try not to head for the nearest fast food place while you wait for your cool, calming kitchen to dry.

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Whenever someone mentioned edible flowers to me, whether as part of a dish or used as a garnish, I nodded politely and did not think much of it. I considered edible flowers to be among the items that one can only find at a store with hard-to-find specialty ingredients - ingredients that I would probably never use, let alone actually need. This week, however, I spotted bags of hibiscus flowers at Trader Joe's.

Sold alongside the other dried fruits, the hibiscus flowers are dried and lightly sweetened. Apart from their beautiful dark fuchsiacolor, they taste pretty good. Slightly sweet and chewy, like fruit leather, they have a bit of a vegetal undertone that is not present in most dried fruits. I think that they'd make an attractive garnish for cakes and even a nice, unusual addition to a spring-time salad. They are not, however, something that I would eat by the handful.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

NBC5 in Chicago recently ran a story about the ongoing debate over treating raw meat with carbon monoxide to maintain its red color and fresh appearance. While this has been in the news for a while, the NBC5 story can serve as a decent summary. Basically, consumer rights groups are concerned that meats treated with CO will appear fresh and safe for far longer than they actually are, thus putting consumers at risk. The FDA has accepted the process as one that's generally regarded as safe (GRAS), without conducting any independent investigation. Late last year, a Michigan-based food company requested that the FDA rescind its decision to allow CO treatment. The process is most commonly found in meats such as beef and tuna that are cut and packed prior to arriving at supermarkets.