Your guide to buying pickles: Yellow 5 content

April 1, 2013 |

Recent public petition to Kraft Foods to remove Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 artificial colorants from the popular Macaroni & Cheese which has gained support of more than 277 thousand consumers ended up with nothing: Kraft Acknowledged Petition But Didn’t Address Concerns. The question is: Does it make any sense to petition about every single product when we have thousands of chemically modified food surrogates on the American market? The answer is clear: No. A broader action is justified.

NOTE: Almost everything is made of petroleum

Another thing is that these and other petitioners who are not professional chemists keep listing this ridiculous statement on front that “Artificial colors are a petroleum industry derivative.” Yes, they are but, guess what? It does NOT matter at all! Don’t you people know that we live in the oil-supported civilization where virtually everything is made of petroleum including Vitamin C and Aspirin? As a professional chemist I clarify this for you: It is bliss that we have oil to make products out of it.

The problem is that chemical nature of the artificial colors is hostile to living cell

That’s the critical point all the petitioners are missing. People, please stop making childish statements that artificial colors are bad because they are made of petroleum, and educate yourselves in basics of chemistry or consult with professional chemists before petitioning! Then, chances are that your further petitions will be taken by the food industry more seriously.

A while ago I have measured the amount of Yellow 5 content in Mt. Olive pickles. It was 32 mg/L. Based on the list of ingredients the Dye Diet Calculator shows that Mt. Olive Sandwich Stuffers Kosher Dills make you taking unacceptably high health risk of DDFI = 4 and give you NO nutritional value of DDNF = 0.14.

Please keep in mind that Yellow 5 colored pickles are used in literally every Subway and McDonald’s sandwich around the world. Don’t you think we should petitioning about them? Let’s see now, what is the dye content in Vlasic Bread and Butter Chips pickles.

DyeDiet Doesn’t Buy It!

Vlasic Bread and Butter Chips pickles: Risk, Nutrition and Dye Content

          Vlasic Bread and Butter Chips pickles: Risk, Nutrition and Dye content

The content of Yellow 5 artificial color was found to be 30 mg/L and 20 ml/jar. Based on the list of ingredients the Dye Diet Calculator shows that Vlasic Pickles pose high health risk of DDFI = 1 and give you unacceptably low nutritional value of DDNF = 0.3.

Claussen Kosher Dill Sandwich Slices are a little less risky because there is no artificial color added. But they contain polysorbate and sodium benzoate. The Dye Diet Calculator indicates that these pickles pose relatively high health risk of DDFI = 0.93 and give you low nutritional value of DDNF = 0.4.

From the other hand, Farmer’s Garden by Vlasic is quite different! As you see, not only have they made different formulations of the same products for the USA and for Europe but do different formulations domestically too. The Dye Diet Calculator shows that Farmer’s Garden by Vlasic gives you NO health risk of DDFI = 0 and gives you moderate to good nutritional value of DDNF = 2. No Yellow 5, nothing artificial. Excellent, I have tried them and I liked them! These are the pickles of choice!

Farmer's Garden by Vlasic picklesFarmer’s Garden by Vlasic pickles: No artificial anything!

Bottom line. Yes, it is important reading ingredient labels. This is what gives us a chance to survive without dealing with cancers in the ocean of processed food surrogates. Yes, you can select and buy healthy food even at your local Walmart! What you need is to read and understand the ingredient lists. Well, with the Dye Diet Calculator you do not have to understand them; the calculator will make the job done for you! It is that simple: Accept the products with Health Risks below 0.9 and Nutritional Values above 0.9. As to the pickles, some healthy choices are presented in Real Deal Pickles article for you. Enjoy your sandwiches!

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Category: Canned food, Food Dyes Exposure, Pickles

Comments (3)

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  1. benamore says:

    Twizzlers now use potassium sorbate instead of sulfur dioxide.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Those pickles are gross. ALL natural is a possible ALL the way