Mayfair Cane with motor oil

Original candy cane was simply a stick of pure white sugar. Unfortunately, modern candies are “improved” by deceptive artificial colorants, flavors and other non-nutritious additives. Therefore while the Holiday Season, you and your children have higher chances to be exposed to those problematic food additives. Please read a fresh article about what I call the “dye diet” and the “fruit fraud:” Foods with color additives deceive consumers.

Here is Mayfair Cane with Red Hots (cinnamon flavored candy). What are these “red hots”? Well, they are sugar mixed up with a food dye and mineral oil.  The recipe may look like this. You take a cup of sugar, add a table spoon of wax, add a table spoon of motor oil, add a pinch of an azo dye Red 40, a pinch of another chemical for the flavor,  stir the mix thoroughly and serve the resulting stuff to your children for the Christmas Eve enjoyments. Yes, mineral oil and motor oil are both derived from petroleum. Look what is inside the candy.

DyeDiet Doesn’t Buy It!

Mayfair Cane candy: Risk, Nutrition and Dye content

So what your kids get for the Christmas is high health risks caused by exposure to the foreign chemises (red segments), DDFI = 22/11 = 2 and nearly zero nutritional value of DDNF = 11/30 ~ 0.4. By the way it says on the label: For nutritional information call 1-800-248-2881, there is no chart given. You will get even higher dosage of Red 40 (27 mg per 63 g container and 195 mg per pound) than with Twizzlers Strawberry twists (123 mg per pound container). Read CSPI report Food Dyes: A Rainbow of Risks, pages 29-32.

In the United Kingdom the manufacturers stopped using recycled cardboard in packaging because of danger that some traces of mineral oil that poses risks of cancer may sneak into the food. In the  American candy like Mayfair cane, Gummi Bears  or Twizzlers mineral oil is deliberately added as an ingredient.  According to the Wikipedia, the World Health Organization classifies mineral oils (untreated or mildly treated industrial-grade) as Group 1 carcinogens to humans (see PDF file Agents Classified by the IARC Monographs).

Also please keep in mind that a buck per 63 g candy cane means that you pay dear amount of $7 per pound! And what you also pay for is a risk of harm to your children health which may or may not be repairable. With this regard, plane sugar obviously is a less risky choice than Mayfair candy cane.

So, you decide. My goal is to provide you with enough factual information to help you to make your informed free choice for you and your children. Have a healthy Holiday Season!

Tags: artificial colors in candy, candy cane, candy review, Christmas treats, dye diet, Food Risk Score, Red 40 in chandy

Category: Candy, Food Dyes Exposure