Go green the natural way

Many of you will be wearing green, drinking green drinks, eating green cookies, and spreading good cheer all in the name of the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day today. Year after year, we love to make four-leaf clover sugar cookies and shamrock shakes, and with a little help of food colouring we transform them into green treats. Not wanting to use artificial colourings, we did some research on how to colour food naturally.

The green vibe

The common types of food colouring we find in the stores are artificial. According to Healthy Child Healthy World, nine synthetic colours are allowed for use in food. Synthetic colours are derived from coal tar, a petroleum product, and are used by the industry because they are unflavoured, consistent and cheaper to produce. We think it’s better to use organic and plant-based food colourings as artificial colour has also been linked to hyperactivity and behaviour problems in children. (See articles in LA Times and Associated Content).

Natural sources

When baking, decorating, making play-doh or dying Easter eggs, why not create your own natural food colour from produce you have at home? In addition to creating colour, you’re children will be able to benefit nutritionally. For green colouring, use chlorophyll, which is also available in mint flavour, from health food stores. Chlorophyll is great because it doesn’t have a taste, acts as a natural deodorizer for the body and is a blood cleanser too. You can also try mashing up avocado for a pale green.

Other colour options include using blueberry juice for purple or blue. For pink or red, try Cranberry juice, the juice of boiled frozen strawberries or beets, or even try crushing the seeds of a pomegranate. Cocoa for light brown, carrot juice for orange, and turmeric for yellow (stale turmeric apparently has a neutral flavour) are other options.

For those of us with little time and who like the convenience of prepared dyes but would like it to be natural, we’ve found the following brands:

• Chefmaster offers natural rood colouring through ShopBakersNook. They ship to Canada.
• Seelecttea.com offers vegan, gluten-free Natural Food colouring and ships to Canada as well.

Avoiding artificial food colouring

Artificial food colouring is not limited to the drops you put in your icing. Snacks, sugary cereals, processed foods, ketchup, orange cheddar cheese and even concentrated fruit juice can contain artificial food colouring. Canada and the United States still allow several synthetic food dyes that have been banned throughout many European countries. In addition, companies here are not requited to list what dyes they use in their products. Rather, the ingredient can simply be listed as ‘colour’. For more information on food colouring, visit the Food Safety Network, and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy provides a guide to food dyes, which, even though it’s by a US organization, still has some really useful information.

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