Annato is a natural substance with a long history in cuisines around the world-- although it could theoretically cause allergies in some. Dyed yellow cheddar is not necessarily inferior–except that white cheddar is more likely to be the product of artesanal cheese makers. Are you making up a cheese tray to end a special dinner or making a grilled cheese sandwich?
During the War, butter was rationed. Margarine makers were forbidden to sell colored margarine, so the consumer was given a capsule of annato to knead into the pasty white stuff. (That was one of my mother’s contribution to the family dinner–she didn’t enjoy it!)
There was a minor kerfuffle here in Vermont a couple of years ago when McDonald’s introduced their oatmeal, including a flavor that they labeled “maple syrup”. There’s a law in Vermont, to protect the syrup producers, that you can’t call something maple syrup unless it started life running through a maple tree. In the end, I think McD’s agreed to use real syrup in Vermont.
The general “you”, sure, but I have had real olive oil and honey (and read that website). I would sometimes use cheaper extra-virgin olive oil while saute-ing, and couldn’t figure out why there were all these warnings about smoke point when I didn’t see problems. So now I’m sorta picky about what I get. I don’t necessarily trust my palate to be educated enough, however.
I never said you did. But American cheeses are obviously messed up if it’s news that cheddar isn’t naturally orange, or if you need to go to a special shop to find ones that aren’t orange.
You don’t. Even the blandest brands of factory produced cheese sell un-dyed cheddar and virtually all the better cheddar is un-dyed (of which you can find at least 10 different brands in any grocery store I’ve been in in the last 20 years).
Based on some recent threads I’d say don’t believe anything you read on the straight dope about the contents, or lack thereof, of US grocery stores.
According to the McDonald’s nutrition facts, the whipped margarine contains 0 g of trans fat. I think the serving size is supposed to be 5.7 g, not 5.7 oz. I should note that 0 g of trans fat may not really be 0 g, but just less than 0.5 g. Or maybe even less than 1.0 g, I’d have to look it up.
Well, syrup could be anything, like Karo, so that’s not my complaint. I don’t even hate pancake syrups like Log Cabin. I just shocked at how fake and horrible the McD’s syrup tasted.
That pisses me off, and that change must have been made recently, as I remember not too long ago looking at the menu or some other writing on the table, and they were bragging about using a significant percentage of the total maple syrup output in the US.
BTW, I know that there is such a thing as food coloring, and I had known about the coloring in cheddar cheese, which doesn’t bother me all that much. But the idea of dying a fish strikes me as rather gross and dishonest.
According to wikipedia (Margarine - Wikipedia), “In recent decades, margarine spreads have gone through many developments in efforts to improve their healthfulness. Most brands have phased out the use of hydrogenated oils, and are now also trans fat free.” So I guess I was wrong. Still a cheapass thing to give people to put on their pancakes, though.
As an interesting aside, I read a book published in Japan around 1977 or so that was all about how fake and shitty the foods there had gotten. It’s hard to believe, but the author complained that there was not a single major brand of soy sauce on the market that was traditionally brewed (they were made the fake way like La Choy). All of the rice vinegar was essentially imitation too. And the book just went on and on. It was quite shocking. I was reading this in the 1990s, when, thankfully, almost all soy sauce in Japan was real again.
Wild salmon isn’t dyed – it is naturally orange. The farm-raised fish is a very unappealing color, and no one believes it is salmon if it isn’t orange, so it is dyed. There are ecological issues with farm-raised salmon, and some say it doesn’t have the health benefits of wild salmon, but neither of those issues have to do with the color. If you don’t mind colorized cheese or think that it’s dishonest, why mind colorized fish, if you don’t care about the other issues?
I understand that wild salmon is orange. The farmed stuff is clearly a less appealing product, and instead of letting it stand on its own merits, the producers are trying to fool people.
I would have a big problem with dyed apples, for example. Or apples that had been injected with “natural apple flavor” to make them taste better. Cheese is by definition a processed food. I would rather have it not colored, but the addition of color does not gross me out. That said, I really don’t like artificial colors overall. I’d much prefer the cheese without them. It’s just a matter of degree of dislike, that’s all.
All salmon flesh is grey before adding food coloring. In wild salmon, that food coloring comes from krill. In farm raised salmon, it comes from food pellets. I don’t really see the difference. Consumers won’t accept uncolored salmon, so it is done; no harm no foul.
I would sometimes use cheaper extra-virgin olive oil while saute-ing, and couldn’t figure out why there were all these warnings about smoke point when I didn’t see problems. So now I’m sorta picky about what I get. I don’t necessarily trust my palate to be educated enough, however.