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Blue Food Packaging & Blue Food

Fluttermoth

Cult of Jari
Joined
Feb 5, 2008
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Not sure if this is the right forum for this; couldn't find anything in a search ;)

I've just read Lyall Watson's 'Omnivore; the Role of Food in Human Evolution' (fascinating little book BTW; I'd highly recommend it if you can dig up a copy) and it mentions the 'food doesn't sell in blue packaging' theory.
I remember hearing this years and years ago and being delighted to find it was true; sugar was the only exception, and apparently make-up didn't sell in brown.
But it seems it's not true anymore! I've just had a quick glance round my kitchen and found all these things in blue packaging; bread, milk, semolina, tinned mandarins, yoghurts, cream, frozen burgers and sausages, pasta, pasta sauce, pickled gherkins, jelly, breakfast cereal, squash, root beer and chocolate.
I find advertising/packaging a fascinating subject and wondered if anyone knew when/how/why we've changed from disliking food packaged in blue to not minding it.
I don't buy make-up so can anyone confirm that that part is still true or not?
 
Crisps of a certain flavour come in blues too. Some lipsticks and even *dare I say it?* Eye shadows come in blue too! Still, it's an interesting observation, which has evidently become out of date. :)
 
On a related note, I remember being told about the first-aid kits in restaurants and kitchens. Apparently, all the sticking-plasters issued in such places are blue, because food never is.

The theory, I guess, is that if you spot something blue in your food, you can remove the offending (used!) sticking-plaster before you eat it...

I suppose the theory is the same with both ideas - that food is never naturally blue, so the eye is drawn to, but repelled by, blue packaging or similar.
 
Morton salt has always had a blue cardboard cannister.

Although no food is naturally blue, "there is no blue food" was not strictly true even when George Carlin first said it. Certain sugar-water-and-faux-fruit flavors generally come in blue, billing themselves as "blue raspberry" or "coconut." (Both taste exactly like sugar water.) You will find this sometimes in hard candy, but most often in frozen snacks, like shaved ice and Otter Pops.
 
I read a similar thing a few years ago - some reseachers apparently fed test subjects a variety of crisps in the dark. They then turned the light on and it was evident that some of the crisps had been dyed bright blue. On seeing this, apparently a number of the subjects vomited.

Not sure about the blue packaging being a new development though. I'm pretty sure Heinz baked beans have been in a blue tin for as long as I can remember.
 
Oh - and blue corn really is more blue than purple or black! Blue corn tortillas and tortilla chips are rare even in the American southwest, though they are commercially available.

Blue potatoes, however, are purple.
 
Heinz beans are turquoise, not blue. You do get blue pop and ice-pops, which, I'm told, are popular with the Jeremy Kyle mothers! :lol:
 
coaly said:
Heinz beans are turquoise, not blue. You do get blue pop and ice-pops, which, I'm told, are popular with the Jeremy Kyle mothers! :lol:

I used to eat blue jelly back in the eighties (and Wispa bars have been in blue wrappers since then, too).

Heinz Beans are in turquoise cans because the colour is the exact opposite of the tomato sauce covering the beans, makes them stand out more.
 
Cadbury Dairy Milk has been sold in blue wrappers since I was knee-high to a grass hopper!

And i had a blueberry muffin the other day! ;)
 
And don't forget Smarties! :D

Seaweed allows blue Smarties comeback
By Emma Henry and agencies
Published: 8:37AM GMT 11 Feb 2008

Blue Smarties are making a comeback, thanks to a colouring extracted from seaweed.


They were dropped nearly two years ago as part of a drive by makers Nestle to rid the sweets of artificial colours.

But now the manufacturer has found a new blue colouring from a seaweed called spirulina.

It means blue Smarties will now reappear in packs along with the seven other colours.

Nestlé Rowntree stopped producing the blue version of the chocolate beans in 2006 because it is removing all artificial colours from the casings and it couldn't find a natural alternative to the blue chemical currently used. It was replaced with a white Smartie.

Smarties brand manager Michelle Roberts said: "We are now delighted to have found a solution that allows us to bring back blue Smarties with no artificial colours and flavours, just like the rest of the Smarties range."

etc..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... eback.html
 
Blueberries are indeed very dark purple when cooked. When raw, the pulp is greenish, but the skins are indigo. Eat enough raw blueberries (delicious on ice cream or in your cereal!) and your tongue and lips will turn blue.

The "blueberry bits" contained in frozen waffles, cheap muffin mixes, and so on are blue, but contain no blueberry. So it's possible you had a "blueberry" muffin rather than one containing actual blueberries, rynner! Ask yourself: were there juicy purple haloes around the blueberries when you bit into them? That's the mark of the true blueberry - the heat of baking broke them and the juice got into the batter.

Come to San Antonio, and I'll take you to a bakery that will teach you what a blueberry muffin is all about.

I'd call turquoise a shade of blue, myself.
 
Shouldn't you be eating bilberries anyway? Especially at this time of patriotic duty! :lol:
 
Bit early for bilberries.

I made 'Bilberry Patxaran' a few years ago ... left loads of bilberries, coffee beans and vanilla pods soaking in absinthe between August and Chrismas.

It went a beautiful deep wine red. Sadly though it tasted like some sort of liniment.

Ho hum.
 
_Lizard23_ said:
Bit early for bilberries.

I made 'Bilberry Patxaran' a few years ago ... left loads of bilberries, coffee beans and vanilla pods soaking in absinthe between August and Chrismas.

It went a beautiful deep wine red. Sadly though it tasted like some sort of liniment.

Ho hum.

Doesn't absinthe already taste like some kind of liniment? :D
 
rynner2 said:
Blue Smarties are making a comeback, thanks to a colouring extracted from seaweed.

Just a pity they still use crushed up beetles for colouring the red ones.
 
But crushed beetles are natural! Who could possibly object?
 
PeniG said:
But crushed beetles are natural! Who could possibly object?

People who like the idea of eating Smarties but not the idea of eating beetles? I'm sure the beetles can't be crazy about it either.
 
I'm sure it's synthetic cochineal now. *Checks*

You're right!
Violet Smarties are currently dyed with cochineal, a derivative of the Cochineal insect which is listed in the ingredients as carminic acid. It is produced by crushing female Cochineal insects. Its presence mean that Smarties are neither kosher, halal nor vegan nor vegetarian.
*Source; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarties
 
I gues they're vegetarian as long as you don;t eat the violet ones, or get someone else to suck the colour off first! :D
 
drbates said:
gncxx said:
PeniG said:
But crushed beetles are natural! Who could possibly object?

People who like the idea of eating Smarties but not the idea of eating beetles? I'm sure the beetles can't be crazy about it either.
I've often wondered about this. If you take crisps and other crunchy snacks - theres not really any foodstuff in nature with that hard 'crunch' except, perhaps, hardshelled insects (presumably)...

nuts?
 
Peripart said:
On a related note, I remember being told about the first-aid kits in restaurants and kitchens. Apparently, all the sticking-plasters issued in such places are blue, because food never is.

The theory, I guess, is that if you spot something blue in your food, you can remove the offending (used!) sticking-plaster before you eat it...

I suppose the theory is the same with both ideas - that food is never naturally blue, so the eye is drawn to, but repelled by, blue packaging or similar.

From my previous life in catering management I can confirm that this is indeed true. They also have a metal strip in them so they will show up on an x-ray.
 
Barilla pasta (Italy's favourite I believe) has always come in a blue packaging.

So - I really don't get the point of that one.

But all the packaging seems to be going towards green at the moment - so make it look more "environmentally friendly" I suppose. :roll:
 
When I was in the retail trade (OK, when my parents were grocers) I was told that certain shades of blue and purple tended not to be used in packaging simply because they made the package look smaller. I used to read The Grocer magazine as well (yes, those long 70s winter evenings fair flew by).
Of course, the culture changes, green has a different meaning now; it's interesting.
 
I'm surprised to find this thread doesn't include any mention of Alfred Hitchcock's blue food parties.

Hitchcock was a noted prankster who often subjected his targets to stressful (some would say sadistic) situations.

By his own admission he hosted two dinner parties with well-known actors and celebrities as guests at which all the otherwise superlative food was dyed blue. The first was in the 1930's in London with actress Gertrude Lawrence as the featured guest. The second was a Christmas season dinner party in late 1964 in California.

For example:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/alfred-hitchcock-dinner-parties-all-blue-food
http://imaginemdd.blogspot.com/2014/01/blue-food-dinner-party-joke-so-nice.html
 
Coincidence: I just watched the 1987 Spitting Image Christmas Special, and in the first couple of minutes there was a feast of blue food at the Conservatives' Christmas party.
 
Coincidence: I just watched the 1987 Spitting Image Christmas Special, and in the first couple of minutes there was a feast of blue food at the Conservatives' Christmas party.

'And the vegetables?'
 
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