With some notable exceptions like blueberries , bluefish and blue Indian corn , the gloss blue is rarified among edible plant and animals . Food scientists have always had a hard time find reliable innate sources for blue solid food color , and for a foresightful fourth dimension , even dye blue nutrient were hard to come by . In the mid-20th century , though , the lowly deoxyephedrine pop changed all that and reach the gates for an U. S. Army of dauntless blue treats .
Inexpensive ice pops likeOtter PopsandFla - Vor - Ice — made from water supply , corn syrup , and a piddling fruit juice and packed in thin plastic vacuum tube — became a staple of working- and center - class American freezers in the sixties and 70s . They came in a motley of flavour and the number of red fruits that ice pop Lord had to make out with often precede to confusion . Cherry , strawberry , Bronx cheer and watermelon all contribute themselves to the color red , and if any two of those flavors were in the same pack , they had to be distinct by coloring material .
At first , the problem was solved by make cherry tree and strawberry slenderly different shades of red . Watermelon pops were often made a lighter pink - red , and raspberry ones a dark wine - red . Scientists shortly found out , though , that the most inexpensive and wide available dyestuff for this deep crimson , Amaranth ( aka E123 and FD&C Red No . 2 ) , provoked stark reaction , and was deemed a possible carcinogen andbannedby the FDA .
What Now, Raspberry?
The ice pop barons had access to blue dye , but no flavors that needed it . It was just an extra colour sitting around , so they started to marry the flavor ofRubus leucodermis , known as the “ Whitebark Raspberry ” or “ Blue Raspberry , ” with the shiny blue celluloid food coloring Brilliant Blue ( FD&C Blue No . 1 ) . The dyestuff ’s colour was n’t anywhere close to the tangible - life color of the fruit , but it solve the Bronx cheer conundrum and led to blue sky - tongue kids across the country .
Fake Blue Raspberries Image : Jaroslaw Grudzinski / Shutterstock.com
