Rock Your Palate

Reading food labels is a good practice. Tartrazine or FD&C Yellow 5 is an approved synthetic organic dye found in many food products as a food coloring; it is lemon in color and water soluble. Some common products containing tartrazine are soft drinks, carbonated drinks, ice cream, ice pops, jam, jelly, gelatin, mustard, yogurt and noodles. In [...]

Saturated fat when consumed at high levels for long periods of time can cause serious health risks. Coconut oil has the highest level but it is also found in meats and dairy products. An easy way to see if an oil or food contains satfat is in its hardness at room temperature. For an example… [...]

Crushed Bugs in My Food? Recently my grandson read and asked me if food companies add crushed bugs to their products for red color? He is right. It is considered a natural color and is actually beetle parts. You will see listed on the ingredient legend of the label as “cochineal” or “carmine.” It has [...]

At home like at any respectable foodservice operation or manufacture we can adopt standard operating procedures. Wash your hands with soapy water or use an alcohol based hand cleanser after using the rest room. Wash your hands before and after handling raw meats. Store raw meat products on the lowest rack in the refrigerator keeping it isolated from [...]

DHA In Baby Food. Docosahexaenoic Acid or DHA is a fatty acid critical to brain and eye development in babies and young children. It is found in breast milk and like any nutrient only dependent upon the mother’s diet. In 2002 the addition of DHA to baby formula was approved in the US. Research supports [...]

There is an heightened awareness that more folks are experiencing allergic reactions to corn. Many retail food companies are choosing to list corn as an ingredient source on labels. For example, in place of modified food starch you will now see modified corn starch. Yet as of today it is not considered as one of [...]