21 December, 2009

Since When Are Pecans Red?

This is a bag of Diamond mixed nuts; I snapped the photo in Costco yesterday. There are two things wrong with this mixture: it doesn't have any Brazil nuts, and the pecans are red. Well, not "red" exactly, but magenta. A really fake-looking obvious dye job. As the ingredients state: "pecan shells colored with artificial color FD&C red 3."

What the hell? What possible reason would there be for dying pecan shells? Screw Diamond - the only reason they're soaking pecans in carcinogens is to make them "look pretty." I'm buying my nuts from someone else.

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4 comments:

Eating The Road said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUvWQW7nAGQ

They're red in the face for being 10x the price of Christmas candy.

zoe p. said...

And the brown of a pecan husk is beautiful!

Unknown said...

I got some unpackaged today. I was worried but the shells are very thick so they OBVIOUSLY didn't get tainted by the dye. I will crack them carefully and was my hands throughly before eating them. I've eaten a few and they were very fresh.

Unknown said...

I lived in Louisiana for many years and enjoyed "natural" Pecans. When I moved to Canada I said: "What's this"? Reply: "Pecans", Me: "Why are they red?" Reply: "Because Pecans are red". Rolled my eyes. Many people here think that Pecans are naturally red. I guess if you have only seen them that way and don't read labels that is your reality. We live in a "nutty" world.