Two years ago, as I sat in front of my grade 11 Foods and Nutrition class, I asked the students what they would say to Kraft Canada if they could. Already we had spent weeks studying nutrition and large companies, had watched Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, and discussed genetically modified food.
“Why do they use tartrazine in Kraft Dinner? I mean, there’s other stuff that’s less harmful. Why can’t they use that?” The student looked at me hopefully. “Do you think they’ll answer?”
Tartrazine, an artificial food coloring, is often found in everything from crackers to candies and marshmallows, although in the UK it’s on a list of food colorings that is being voluntarily phased out and has been banned in some countries. There is some controversy about using it in products marketed at children because of the potentially harmful side effects. Despite this, tartrazine is still being added to many products in the USA and Canada.
When I asked the teens I worked with what they wanted me to ask Kraft, I wasn’t sure if they would answer a question about tartrazine. But then the moment came and, there I was, asking the CEO of Kraft Canada himself. While now I don’t remember exactly what he said, I did take this away:
At that time, Kraft was working on getting tartrazine out of Kraft Dinner and wanting to try a product like annatto instead, but the process had to be done slowly and carefully. Consumers are nostalgic about a product, and suddenly changing something can really upset them. Let’s be honest—this is a business, and changes to something as iconic as Kraft Dinner has to be handled with the utmost care. Remember New Coke vs Old Coke and the fallout from that?
I’ll admit that at the time, I wasn’t sure I totally bought his argument, but I tweeted out his explanation anyway. To my utter shock, within mere seconds my Twitter feed was full of people saying this like this about Kraft Dinner:
“How dare Kraft mess with it! I love it neon orange! Don’t change a thing! Stop trying to healthify my junk food!“
Wow. Customer loyalty, indeed.
Tartrazine, or food colorings in general, add no nutritional value to food. They are purely there to beautify whatever we’re eating, and we’ve grown accustomed to many of them. When you picture a bowl of KD, don’t you see those neon orange noodles winking back at you? However, an interesting point is that since food colorings have been either banned or discouraged in European countries. The American products that are sold in those countries, such as Kraft’s boxed macaroni and cheese, have been re-formulated so that they meet guidelines there, but they remain with the same artificial food colored item on this side of the Atlantic.
What gives? Why can’t we have the same formulations as in the UK? To push Kraft, and ultimately other companies to make those re-formulated products to everyone, food bloggers Vani Hari of The Food Babe and Lisa Leake of 100 Days of Real Food have gone on a mission by creating a petition asking Kraft to reformulate the recipe for the USA and take out the artificial food colorings. With Kraft being one of the largest food companies in the world, perhaps if people speak up against the food colorings and they change, maybe other companies will follow suit. It remains to be seen if the public will speak up enough to demand change, or if companies will simply do this on their own.
In the meantime, I believe that you have your biggest vote every time you enter a store and grocery shop. Read the labels. Try other brands if you don’t like what’s in your usual one. If you can’t pronounce what’s on the label, it’s probably not real food. Demand better of your food producers, and I think they’ll deliver.
It is a business after all, and they produce what sells. The really great thing though is that you get to influence that every time you’re at the cash register.
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