Rainbow colored bread in the 90s?

[Mangetout]

@CalMeacham

I can’t say I’m surprised. People are often weirded out by food that differs significantly in color from what they think it should be.

I used to belong to a “supper club”, in which each member cooked a meal for all the members of the club on a rotating basis. My lot fell on an April Fool’s day, so I decided to make things strange by using food coloring to make the mashed potatoes purple and the dinner rolls blue.

People wouldn’t touch them.

I emphasize that all I changed was the coloring – the dishes were otherwise unaltered, and tasted the same. But people don’t like their mashed potatoes to be purple, and the blue dinner rolls looked as if they were made out of play-dough (which, come to think of it, they almost were).

I’m surprised that they were ever able to successfully market blue corn chips.

I’ve found that people (including myself) react differently according to the source of the colour (assuming they know the source). Mashed potatoes dyed purple with food colouring would put me off. Purple mash made from blue potatoes positively excites me.
It’s a ‘natural’ vs ‘artificial’ thing - not entirely rational, but it’s a strong force.