I am behind on my Dark Days Challenge! With the holidays I didn't get in a meal for the week that was SOLE - sustainable, organic, local & ethical. Some came very close (like my chicken noodle soup) but then I threw in something like the noddles that canceled it out! Anyways, I am back on the band wagon this week and working on something for this weeks SOLE meal. In the mean time, I was reviewing recaps from some of the other bloggers participating in this challenge and came across this post from Barbara at Crowing Hen! She nails it - and it is something everyone should read. This is 'slowly' becoming a major soap box for me :) Truly, take the time to read this!
According to the description of the Bull's Blood Beet in the Seed Savers Exchange catalog, 'The juice from the beets is used to make the only red food coloring allowed by Swedish law.'
Think about this people - other countries don't even ALLOW red dye unless it is from a natural source. And I will end that topic here -- because it could be a week's worth of blog posts all it's own. At the end of the day, if you have the choice to give, or not give, something that contains red dye, why wouldn't you chose not too? Just sayin'....
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4 comments:
Red dye is terrifying. I've seen it wreak havoc on 120 girls at once. It's like a nightmare. I manage a non-profit summer camp that provides food from the federal food program for breakfast and lunch everyday for our campers...the food is gross and freaks me out, but for a lot of our girls it is the only food they get...such a balancing act :-( On a similar note, did you know that cherry and grape popsicles (full of what? oh right...red dye and sugar!) are now considered a FRUIT by the above mentioned food program? Yeah...I'm definitely ready for some new laws to be passed in this country. Not sure I'm ready to hold my breath about it, though.
Melissa I DID NOT hear that about the popsicles - how TERRIBLE! Seriously? What nimrod government figure came up with that revelation!?
I know, it is such a catch 22 with the food pantries and the food they are actually given to distribute half the time :/
Yeah...we learned that little factoid this past summer. We are not allowed to serve the meals delivered to us to the girls if they are incomplete (missing an item) and have to call the kitchen manager to have them deliver what we're missing. So, as our "lunch lady" went through the meals, she noticed there wasn't a fruit, so she called the kitchen and they said that the popsicle WAS the fruit. Awesome.
Also, not sure how it works elsewhere, but here the federal food program is run through another youth serving org here in SF, not through our local food pantry. I wish it were run through our food pantry...they're amazing. The other org...not so much.
Well said! I hate foods with food coloring / dyes. It's so unnecessary and unnatural!
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