
The Quest to Make a True Blue M&M - pmcpinto
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/09/magazine/blue-food-coloring-mars-company.html
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delinka
"Scientists estimate that more than half the human brain is involved in
processing what we see. Only about 1 percent or so is dedicated to taste.
[...] If researchers want you to really taste something, feel its texture
against your tongue and smell its subtle notes, they will make you eat it in
the dark or under lights that mask colors. Humans are color-seeking animals,
and food companies learned to manipulate that trait early."

This is why Heinz's attempts at green ketchup years ago failed to impress. My
kids thought it was an awesome idea. And we all agreed it tasted exactly how
ketchup should. But that bright green on your food where you expected a rich
red ... it was unsettling.

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dalke
In a related but tangential story about the difficulty of getting a blue
color, the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to "Ivette Bassa, constructor
of colourful colloids, for her role in the crowning achievement of 20th
century chemistry, the synthesis of bright blue Jell-O."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ig_Nobel_Prize_winners#1992)

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Symbiote
I'm surprised this is difficult, since Nestle Smarties have used natural
colours in Europe since about 2005, and a blue one based on Spirulina was
introduced in 2008.

Is there much difference between Smarties and M&Ms? They're both chocolate
covered with a sugar shell.

[1]
[https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/feb/11/fooddrinks](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/feb/11/fooddrinks)

Pictures:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarties](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarties)

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kepano
I wouldn't be surprised if creating a deep blue shade is far more difficult
than a light blue like the Smarties color.

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gus_massa
The research part is interesting, but the idea that natural colorants are
magically safer than artificial colorants is stupid. There are many natural
substances that have colors and are poisonous.

I can agree that the natural red colorant from beet is safe because it's very
common to eat a lot of beet without problems. But a weird blue colorant from a
bacteria that lives in Yellowstone deserve the same level of test that an
artificial colorant, being natural doesn't make it magically safer.

~~~
kpil
It seems to me that there is a higher risk that a large complex molecule
synthesised by a microbe is biologically active, and that the risk for
contamination is higher.

Anyway, I could probably live a full life without blue smarties actually.

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tim333
I'm reminded of brown M&Ms. There's a surprisingly rich M&M literature
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7754334](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7754334)

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johnchristopher
> “Unfortunately, you can’t just grind up a peacock feather,” said Robbins, a
> petite woman with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and the empathic, wide-set
> blue eyes of a small-town bartender, with what sounded like genuine regret.

Sigh...

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foo111
The author is a woman. We've had this discussion before.

With all the talk about machine learning here on HN, I'm surprised nobody has
come up yet with an ML-powered (opt-in) filter to hide these comments away.
'Tis truly the scourge of the Internet these days.

~~~
kpil
The author is a bad writer.

