Crystal Light Drink Mix

[OhSewRetro]

Anyone know if Crystal Light Orange Sunrise is vegan?
http://www.kraftfoods.com/CRYSTALLIGHT/main.aspx?m=product/ProductInformationPanel&Site=1&Product=4300094542
There's red 40 in it, so it could possibly be carmine? That drink is really good by itself, in smoothies and mixed with sweetpotato and it has 10% calcium per cup/5 calories! I hope there's no smushed beetles in it....

[Art Vandelay]

I have some and it doesn't have Red 40 in it... but then again it's not a "red" flavor, it's lemonade. So I suppose it depends on which flavor.

[Pisces Coda]

mixed with sweet potato!?

[rainbow_clouds]

Red 40 is not the same thing as carmine. Red 40 is a coal tar or petroleum derivitave. If it contained carmine, the ingredients would say either cochineal and carmine. Red 40 is vegan.

[IamJen]

What she said ^^^

[OhSewRetro]

Thanks! Somewhere on here there was a discussion about Red 40 meaning carmine, but then a law got passed to make the ingredients say carmine.

Yep, mixed with sweet potato. With dinner last night I had mashed sweet potato mixed with the orange stuff, vanilla soymilk, cinnamon, a little maple syrup, raisins and walnuts and it was SOOOOOO yummy, qualified as a dessert! :smitten:

[OhSewRetro]

I just was reading the package today and I noticed it has Calcium Carbonate. Is it an animal derivative in this case, or should I call the company?

[Libellula]

sweetpotato + orange juice (or in this case, Orange Crystal Light) is actually pretty common.. the acidity of the orange juice makes the sweetness of the potato less so...

[soilman]

Indeed, red 40 is fundamentally a coal tar derivative, or possibly a petroleum derivative. However when it was first developed, 60 years ago or something, it was, err, extensively tested on animals to make sure it was safe. Also, in the process of adding it too food, special glass that is transparent to all wavelengths of light, evenly, are used to make the decisions as to how much of red 40, combined with other colorings, needs to be used, to get just the right color. One of the ingredients used in the manufacture of this special glass, is filtered thru a complex filter containing bone char as one of its ingredients, in order to make sure no impurities end up in the glass.

Seriously though, lots of commercial products are probably filtered thru bone char, not just refined sugar. It is very good at getting out traces of coloring that other filters miss. Want your pill to be white instead of off-white? Or you paint? Or your paper? Or the plastic used on a zillion products? Coul have been filtered thru bone char.

[soilman]

Calcium carbonate is purified limestone (which is about 80 percent or so calcium carbonate). Calcium citrate is probably made from chemically reacting citric acid with calcium carbonate. Citric acid comes from -- I don't know. Just because it is present in fruits, and characteristic of citric fruits, doesn't mean commercial sources come from fruit.

Maltodextrin is a starch derivative. I think xanthan gum is veg origin but I'm not sure. Cellulose gum is almost certainly made from plant fibers. Magnesium oxide is mineral. It is a white pigment as well as an anticaking agent. Don't know how the (two) artificial sweeteners are made.

[soilman]

OK, xanthan gum is made when a specific bacteria (originally found growing on cabbage leaves) metabolizes (eats and excretes) a culture medium (food for bacteria). What the medium is, I don't know. It might possibly be carbohydrates, as this is the culture medium used for lactic acid, vitamin b12, many nutritional yeasts, and many artificial rennets, but I just don't know. I figure it probably is carbohydrates, as food gums are generally hemi-celluloses, which are generally made by stringing together the simple sugars found in carbohydrates.

the culture medium for many mushrooms is rather unsavory -- those common small white button mushrooms are commonly grown in a compost containing chicken feces as well as straw and other things.

[soilman]

By the way, I find the taste of artificial sweeteners to be very unsettling. I can generally tell, within minutes, that I'm not getting the energy kick that the taste suggests. Recently I bought diet sprite or diet 7-up (containing sucrolose, Splenda), by mistake, took a few sips, sensed something was "wrong", and put on my glasses, and discovered indeed, I had gotten the wrong item.

The whole purpose of eating is got get energy-supplying materials (fuel) and building materials, plus some materials needed in processing the energy and building materials (fiber for example) -- so I don't see why anyone would want to eat artificial sweeteners. You can't get energy from it, but it tastes like things that you can get energy from. Thus it makes you feel like you just need to eat more of it, to get the energy you need, and that you are eating (or drinking) it for. So it encourages you to consume too much, rather than helps you keep your food consumption down. Plus you think you are getting energy, but you are not -- so you get tired, and wonder why -- and think maybe I need to eat more.