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Natural brilliant blue food coloring wrung out of red cabbage:
For decades, concerns have been raised about the safety of synthetic food dyes, and while the evidence against them is still unclear, natural colorings are generally preferred. Most of these pigments are sourced from plants, although a few come from crushed insects. But frustratingly, not all colors are easy to find in these places.
"Blue colors are really quite rare in nature – a lot of them are really reds and purples," says Pamela Denish, an author of the new study.
[...] As you might expect, most of the anthocyanins in red cabbage are red or purple, but there are tiny amounts of blue in there too. After about a decade of trying, a team of scientists from a range of institutions and food companies has now managed to extract useful amounts of blue by converting other anthocyanins.
Doing so required exactly the right enzyme, so the team screened a library of millions of them, and used computational simulations to explore about 100 quintillion potential protein sequences. Eventually, they were able to design the perfect enzyme for the job of converting the red and purple anthocyanins into blue ones.
The end result, the team says, is a natural cyan dye equivalent to the widely used synthetic FD&C Blue No. 1.
Journal Reference:
Pamela R. Denish, Julie-Anne Fenger, Randall Powers, et al. Discovery of a natural cyan blue: A unique food-sourced anthocyanin could replace synthetic brilliant blue [open], Science Advances (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abe7871)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @06:12PM (24 children)
Why do I want food to be blue that isn't naturally so? There's one thing I can think of that I want to be blue, and it's right in the name: blueberries. Why did nature make it rare? What might be lurking in our systems that might trigger something that's long term unhealthy, even if the dye isn't toxic--like how artificial sweeteners mess with our systems in weird ways because we got the taste but not the sugar.
I say, if you're not eating blueberries and your food is blue, that's probably a sign that you're eating something unhealthy.
Nobody needs blue food.
Apparently, somebody wants it though. They even want to drink weirdly colored blue fluids, stuff that looks like glass cleaner.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @06:18PM (5 children)
We found a natural blue coloring. Great, let's learn how to produce it synthetically to avoid the extraction and putting pressure on the red cabbage market.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @08:09PM (3 children)
Why would that put pressure on the red cabbage market? What else are they going to do with the stuff? It's not like anyone eats it, after all.
Well, I take that back -- I suppose some desperate people in the middle of a famine might eat some of it, after they get tired of the taste of boiled shoe leather.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @09:09PM (1 child)
Put a bit of soy and chillies into the pot, those shoes will taste much better. if you have time leave it to steep to better infuse into the soles.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @11:39PM
Sole food?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday April 12 2021, @03:44PM
Red cabbage is tasty. Makes good coleslaw, vegetable stew, meat stew for that matter, also who hasn't had boiled cabbage and potatos? Maybe, I'm from a weird place that eats real food?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday April 12 2021, @03:52AM
There's also the issue that "natural" isn't necessarily good. Arsenic is a 100% natural green colouring but I don't see anyone putting it in food, although they did put it in wallpaper at one point until it killed too many people. In fact given that the synthetics have seen vast amounts of testing and decades of use across a massive user base, we have a pretty good idea of what we're getting with them. Going to some recently-discovered "natural" alternative, we don't have any of that.
Natural arsenic-green M&M anyone?
(Score: 2) by drussell on Sunday April 11 2021, @06:22PM (3 children)
Blueberries aren't even actually blue inside, they're very purple, but they do look kinda blue due to that "frosted" look on the outside.
I agree, why would you want to eat blue food?
If nothing natural is blue, why on earth would you want to eat fake blue food?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Mojibake Tengu on Sunday April 11 2021, @06:33PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation [wikipedia.org]
Just don't say "nothing natural is blue"...
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 12 2021, @02:46PM (1 child)
"Cakes! Everybody likes cakes!"
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday April 12 2021, @07:36PM
The cake is a lie!
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by NateMich on Sunday April 11 2021, @06:46PM
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday April 11 2021, @07:07PM (1 child)
Can't really think of many blue dishes or food-stuff if you don't want to include ice-cream, candy and some soda. That said I'm sure it's one of those normally weird things that when people don't know what real food looks like they buy into some idea of what it's supposed to look like -- like meat isn't really red or the levels of red they use yet every steak in the store is red like a baboons ass. People just don't know better anymore when they are so disconnected from how food actually is made or what it looks like in its original shape and form.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 12 2021, @10:02AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI0rd6brcTk [youtube.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasi_kerabu [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clitoria_ternatea#Culinary_Use [wikipedia.org]
This blue looks far better and there's no need to add any enzymes to artificially modify stuff and then lie and call the result a "natural" "blue" (the article's blue sure ain't natural nor is it a "brilliant blue").
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Sunday April 11 2021, @07:10PM
Some people need a little empathy when they experience depression, you insensitive clod.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @08:41PM (1 child)
We need blue food because blue is the color of the triumphant Democratic Party. For the next four years it's blue hair, blue food and mandatory transgender bathrooms to accommodate the likes of Azuma.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday April 12 2021, @12:06AM
Just a guess, but are you that whiny little AC from the other thread who's really, really mad at me? :)
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Funny) by shortscreen on Sunday April 11 2021, @08:53PM
If the crunch berries didn't turn your butthole blue then how else would you know they were working??
(Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Sunday April 11 2021, @10:38PM (2 children)
How can you have blue flavored food, if it's not blue? Imbecile!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 12 2021, @04:13PM (1 child)
Blue is not a flavor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 12 2021, @05:42PM
Blue tastes a lot like green... but with less yellow. More like copper than brass.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday April 12 2021, @12:03AM
Do you know what makes blueberries blue(ish?) Anthocyanins. Do you know what kind of chemical this dye is? An anthocyanin.
The entire *point* is that this is an analog of one of the very, *very* rare naturally-occurring blue substances; most of the time when we see blue in nature and it's not the sky, it's not actually blue pigment but a trick of the light.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday April 12 2021, @01:47AM
JavaScript... As evil as flash
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Reziac on Monday April 12 2021, @01:56AM
I dunno, but I'm amazed they took so long to discover this. Anyone who's managed to squish red cabbage on a white shirt discovers a blue stain.
Speaking of oddly-colored food, I once made an onion pie with a purple onion (of a type no longer on the market, far as I can find) and was astonished to discover that it came out bright green.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 12 2021, @06:00PM
How else can you hide your mistakes in the kitchen [wikipedia.org]. See episode 3 - "Subject to Contract".