CONFECTIONERY COLOURS.
Confectioners employ several colours. Yellow, brown and black are
usually obtained by means of caramel; the other colours, red, green
and blue, which are also largely used, must be made from harmless
compounds. Unfortunately, colour makers have been known to offer the
consumer for this purpose colours which by no means correspond to this
requirement; even the poisonous arsenic pigments have been used for
colouring sweets. In such a case the user of the colours is less to be
blamed than the manufacturer, who should sell for this purpose only
colours in no way injurious to health. Fortunately we possess among
the pigments of organic origin a sufficient number to satisfy these
requirements: for green, either sap green or leaf green may be used
without hesitation; for red, cochineal carmine is well suited, and for
blue, indigo carmine. The two pigments last named are indeed expensive,
but since they possess great colouring power they can still be used for
colouring cheap sweets.
For colouring liqueurs equal care must be taken to choose non-injurious
colours. Those mentioned above may also be used for this purpose.
Recently these colours have been largely displaced by the aniline dyes,
which are particularly adapted by their beauty and great colouring
power for the colouring of confectionery or liqueurs. There should
be some hesitation in using these dyes for colouring articles of
food. Some of them are made by means of arsenic compounds, and it is
very difficult to free them absolutely from every trace of arsenic.
But supposing the dye to be free from arsenic, there may still be
objections to its use, for the pure dyes themselves may possess
poisonous properties, and thus ought not to be used for colouring
articles of food.
For colouring foods the colours above mentioned are sufficient. Orange
is obtained by mixing caramel with red, violet by mixing red and blue,
and the shades thus produced are quite sufficient for the purpose in
question. The colour maker should sell the colours in such a condition
that they can be used without further preparation. The colours for
confectioners and liqueur makers should be put on the market in a
semi-fluid or pasty condition. For this purpose carmine should be
ground with a very thick sugar syrup. Leaf green and indigo carmine
require no further preparation; they are already semi-fluid, they
readily diffuse, and are also soluble in alcoholic liquids.