Food color additives are vital to how we taste and perceive food, yet they generally remain mysterious to the public. First, it uses recent examples to illustrate the importance of colors to our enjoyment of food. It then recounts the early history of food colors and the emergence of regulation to prevent their unsafe and fraudulent uses. The margarine war of the late 19th and early 20th centuries is described, as well as the 1906 and 1938 Food and Drug Acts. Demand for natural food coloring has been growing, sparked by a general demand among consumers for all-natural products. As the food in...

Amber oil is wonderful stuff if you can find a good one. It isn’t always easy to find. I know a place that provides very high-quality amber oil. Amber is one of the most characteristic products of the Baltic republics, especially Lithuania. It washes up on thr word electricity comes from, because static electricity was noticed by the ancients as a property of amber, that it attracts straw. In Persian, amber is called kahroba, from the words kah 'straw' and roba 'thief' (related to the English word “rob " ). The modern Arabic word for electricity was coined from kahroba (following ...

The almond is native to the Mediterranean climate region of the Middle East, eastward as far as the Indus. It was spread by humans in ancient times along the shores of the Mediterranean into northern Africa and southern Europe and more recently transported to other parts of the world, notably California, United States. The wild form of domesticated almond grows in parts of the Levant; almonds must first have been taken into cultivation in this region. The fruit of the wild forms contains the glycoside amygdaline, "which becomes transformed into deadly p...

The betel leaf is cultivated in most of South and Southeast Asia. Since it is a creeper, it needs a compatible tree or a long pole for support. Betel requires high land and especially fertile soil. Waterlogged, saline and alkali soils are unsuitable for its cultivation. In Bangladesh, farmers called barui prepare a garden called a barouj in which to grow betel. The barouj is fenced with bamboo sticks and coconut leaves. The soil is plowed into furrows of 10 to 15 meters’ length, 75 centimeters in width and 75 centimeters’ dept...

Bay leaf (plural bay leaves) refers to the aromatic leaves of several plants used in cooking. These include :- Fresh or dried bay leaves are used in cooking for their distinctive flavor and fragrance. The leaves are often used to flavor soups, stews, braises and pâtés in Mediterranean cuisine. The fresh leaves are very mild and do not develop their full flavor until several weeks after picking and drying. California bay leaf – the leaf of the California bay tree, also known as California laurel, Oregon myrtle, and pepper wood, is similar to the...