Our Response to Kraft's Letter: It's Time to Surrender Your Artificial Dyes
Today Vani (aka Food Babe) and I are appearing on the Dr. Oz Show - be sure to tune in!
It's been a little over one week since we started a petition to remove artificial food dyes from Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. We have over 228,000 signatures and, while we heard from Kraft right after the petition launched, it was not the response we were hoping for.
We thought it would be important to share their response and exact letter with you, so you can understand exactly what we are up against.
Below you'll see Kraft's letter to us along with our specific response and reaction in bold.
From Kraft: Hi Lisa and Vani,
Thanks for contacting us. The safety and quality of our products is our highest priority and we take consumer concerns very seriously. We carefully follow the laws and regulations in the countries where our products are sold. So in the U.S., we only use colors that are approved and deemed safe for food use by the Food and Drug Administration.
Our Response: When Kraft found out the safety of artificial food dyes was in question in Europe - why didn't they make the "safety" of U.S. citizens their highest priority, too? Food is food - whether in our country or someone else’s - why not make all Kraft products standardized to the highest safety regulation across the board? Kraft was able to reformulate their products without artificial dyes in the U.K. without noticeably changing the color or taste - we even taste tested it ourselves just to prove this point. We know it can be done; Kraft doesn't have to reinvent the wheel.
To further prove this point - Kraft stated this fact themselves by reformulating Lunchables in the UK without "compromising quality, taste and food safety."
“Kraft Foods UK has no products aimed at children that contain the ingredients highlighted in the FSA [Southampton] study. . . . [W]ith our recent Lunchables reformulation in the UK, we reduced fat and salt, as well as removed artificial colours and flavours. Without compromising quality, taste and food safety, we will continue to see where we can make changes and still meet consumer expectations.”—Kraft Foods UK (Quote Taken from AllergyKids Foundation)
Because Kraft has not willingly and proactively reformulated their products in the US, it's obvious to us that Kraft’s highest priority is their bottom line. We are asking Kraft, a multi-billion dollar company, to be the leader in the US Food Industry by voluntarily removing artificial dyes and owning up to the statements they make about safety and quality of their products.
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one time for an easy homemade Ranch dressing. Once your spice mixture has been made it’s a very simple process to add your perishable ingredient whenever you’re in the mood for some homemade dressing. Talk about being efficient! Now we prefer a Ranch dip over a dressing at our house (especially since it magically makes my 6-year-old eat twice as many carrots as normal) so below is a modified version that turns Erin’s spice mixture into a Ranch dip instead of a Ranch dressing. Enjoy!
I do something similar, but I use 1/2 mayo like one commenter did…and I mix the seasonings in with the mayo. It stores in the fridge for months, and the flavours are already fully developed in the mayo, so you just add 1 part mayo/seasoning mix to one part sour cream/yogurt/milk and you’re ready to go!
Has anyone made this with Greek Yogurt instead of sour cream?
Hi there. Yes, some of our readers have.
I make ranch dip like this one with Fage and it’s awesome, just a little thicker than sour cream. You can add a little bit of olive oil if you want it thinner.
Would this work to use only mayo as the base? I am unable to have yogurt, sour cream, or buttermilk.
Hi Melanie. That is not something we’ve tried. You might also consider a plain non-dairy yogurt.
I make something similar, only I add about 1/4 cup of milk kefir. This adds a really nice tang to it.
oh, sounds like a great way to use kefir! I am assuming you use it instead of the sour cream?
Am I supposed to use Dill Seed or Dill Weed? Thanks!
You should use dry dill weed.
I thought it needed a bit of salt flavor, so I used garlic salt instead of garlic. Also we did not have any basil in the house (gasp!) so I added freeze dried chives. It tasted great! As a side note, we can’t have mayo based dips in the house since I have a kiddo allergic to eggs. So sour cream dips are perfect for us. :-)
This stuff is great and very easy to “tweek” to your liking. I make it with ” Johnies Garlic Bread Seasoning from Costco, dried chives and I add it to tast to plain Greek yogurt mixed with Mexican table sour cream ( thinner ) until it has a taste and “dip ability” that I like. I use it as a veggie dip and salad dressing ( dipped on my fork).
Turned out good ! Added a little more onion and garlic to suite our family.
I use plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and add just a little touch of season salt. SO GOOD! I am very excited to have found this!
it does not taste like ranch dressing, it’s a dill dressing.