# Orange colored oranges?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-colored-oranges/38264>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 25, 2000, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-colored-oranges/38264 "2000-10-25T15:35:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Double-P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7bcc69/32.png) [@Double-P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double-P)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-colored-oranges/38264/1 "2000-10-25T15:35:30Z")

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In an effort to sell more fruit, I’ve heard that oranges are sprayed with some sort of coloring which gives them that so orange, they’d glow in the dark look. Could this be true? If a brightly colored rind increases sales and consumption, couldn’t bioengineers or farmers get equally good results through selective breeding? I think that nature would have given us bright, appealing fruit already, and artificially colored fruit, to me, is LESS appetizing.

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**Author:** ![3waygeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/e95f7d/32.png) [@3waygeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3waygeek)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-colored-oranges/38264/2 "2000-10-25T16:12:39Z")

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Some oranges are dyed to make them look better; they’re generally stamped with the words “color added”.

Note that oranges aren’t always orange – the color comes from cool nighttime temperatures. In places where nights are warm, (e.g. Thailand), perfectly ripe oranges are green.

For more info on oranges than anyone would ever want to know, check out John McPhee’s _Oranges_ – it was published back in the early 70s, so it may be out of print.

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**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2000, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orange-colored-oranges/38264/3 "2000-10-25T16:27:51Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by 3waygeek \*  
> \*\*  
> For more info on oranges than anyone would ever want to know, check out John McPhee’s _Oranges_ – it was published back in the early 70s, so it may be out of print. \*\*

Still in print. I just got it for Xmas last year, in a new edition. Boy, what a difference that slim, concise volume is from his gargantuan, rambling _Annals of the Former World,_ which took me ten months of infrequent reading to finish.