# Food dye in pastry goods are coloring peoples mouth!



## ithirsty (Oct 24, 2015)

Hello, 
we have many clients request DEEP color PIGMENTED items such as macarons: Blacks, navy blues, dk.greens, reds etc etc and also custom projects when we color royal icing's and buttercream etc that people have experienced colored mouths and are unhappy due to it. Does anyone else have professional experience with similar issues and how have you worked around some of these issues>>>>
Thanks


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## jcakes (Feb 18, 2007)

when a customer asks for a dark color, I always warn them that eating it will turn teeth and tongues the same color; if they choose to go forward with the order after that there's not much you can do. Even the "all natural" colors will do this so there's no way to truly avoid it. If it's a cake, I can suggest using a colored fondant that can be peeled off of the cake for serving but that involves a higher cost which may not work for their budget.


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## chefwriter (Oct 31, 2012)

You could advertise that it's fun at parties like birthdays and other unique celebrations. So a sign stating the teeth coloring properties, done upon request but in a positive way.


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## chefpeon (Jun 14, 2006)

I second everything jcakes said. I've been in the cake and pastry business for a LONG time and one thing I've learned over the years is that you need to educate your customers about certain things less something comes back to bite you on the a**. Any time someone has asked for deeply pigmented colors on a cake or other pastry, I always warn them about the mouth coloring. Most of the time, once they know that, they will change their minds. What I always do is suggest that the deeply pigmented colors be used as accent colors rather than the main color.


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## fatcook (Apr 25, 2017)

I also warn them about the colors coming out the next day... I have found spraying the colors on (when possible) rather than coloring the icing can help reduce this (and any taste issues) when there is no getting around it.


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## chefpeon (Jun 14, 2006)

fatcook said:


> I also warn them about the colors coming out the next day... I have found spraying the colors on (when possible) rather than coloring the icing can help reduce this (and any taste issues) when there is no getting around it.


I had thought of airbrushing color on too, but when I tried it, I could never get the color to look even enough. It was always so splotchy. It wasn't a workable alternative for me! Maybe it was my airbrush.....or maybe it was me!


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

There is no way around it. We don't deep color anything ingestible. If a customer insists. then we only color accents that can be removed and those are dried items.
Stained teeth, lips, and tongues are one thing, but there could be a liability issue when you stain a $ 20,000.00 gown.
We sometime joke with customers that if you need some type of acid to clean up a red stain, just think what your stomach has to do.


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