Cheetos, skittles, Froot Loops, Gatorade, salsa, salad dressing

To paraphrase Shakespeare, “Would a Cheeto by any other color taste as savory?”

Very off-topic but I can't wait to read in the news about some kids school report about Shakespeare being written by some LLM which has training data that includes this quote ;)

Those are dyed, but they don't depend on the dye for nutrition or taste. Wasabi isn't less delicious if it's a lighter or different hue.

The saying goes you eat with your eyes. These things depend on dye as they rot on the shelf otherwise.

A paper on it: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00319...

I mean … the pickled ginger served by my local Japanese sushi place is … well, the color of ginger (same shade as like a ginger beer) and it tastes fine to me?

They rot on the shelves ... when competitors can make their alternatives more flamboyant to stand out. Not if everyone stops needlessly coloring those foods.

Don't forget red meat either.

In many cases[0][1][2] it's treated with carbon monoxide to make it look redder.

[0] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5848116/

[1] https://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=3801706&page=1

[2] https://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2005/11/17/FDA-ask...