Artificial Colouring/Flavouring gone too far?
I'm not the greatest fan of E numbers, but a couple of things I've eaten and drank today have really made me wonder.
The first was a supermarket multipack of own brand sausage rolls. The packaging proudly proclaimed that there were no artificial flavouring, hydrogenated fats or artificial colouring in the products. I bought a pack and cooked one of the sausage rolls earlier. On cutting into the product, what greeted me under the pastry was a grey mass of extruded meat, which the packaging said was pork. It certainly tasted like pork, but it looked nothing like the pink meat that used to be in these products a few years back. I realise that I was probably eating my fair share of artificial colours with these products years ago, but at least the stuff inside looked like sausage meat and not the mucky grey stuff I saw today. Is this the price we pay for abolishing these colours in food? Personally, I'd rather eat pink meat.
The second product was a two litre bottle of Morrisons Fruits of the Forest soft drink. The label showed raspberries and blackberries on it and yes, it certainly tasted like both fruits. Once again, the product was said not to contain artificial ingredients. Marvellous, you'd think, except for one thing � the product was completely transparent like water. To my mind, if a drink like this is clear yet tastes of fruit, it immediately causes a person to think that the stuff has been artificially flavoured. In turn, this totally negates the value of declaring that it does not contain artificial colours or flavours. Surely if the drink had some colouration similar to the fruit, it would be more acceptable as it would at least have some colouration associated with the fruit. Are they not shooting themselves in the foot by producing a clear product like this?
Am I the only person that thinks like this?