Coloring Butter.—Unfortunately the practice of artificially coloring butter is very prevalent in the United States. Practically all the butter found upon the market, even in the spring and summer, is more or less artificially colored, often with coal tar (anilin) dyes which, to say the least harm of them possible, are open to suspicion in respect of wholesomeness. The practice of coloring butter produced in winter may be regarded as universal, though none the less reprehensible on that account. The object of coloring butter is, undoubtedly, to make it appear in the eyes of the consumer better than it really is, and to this extent can only be regarded as an attempt to deceive. If cows are properly fed during the winter months with wholesome, nutritious food to which a small proportion of roots such as carrots or ruta bagas are added or with yellow maize and clover hay, even in winter time the butter produced will have an attractive light amber tint which appeals strongly to the æsthetic sense of the consumer. The natural tint of butter is as much more attractive than the artificial as any natural color is superior to the artificial. There is the same difference between the natural tint of butter and the artificial as there is between the natural rose of the cheek and its painted substitute. It is claimed, and perhaps justly, that the use of certain vegetable colors, such as annotto, does not introduce any unwholesome substance into the product. Admitting this, we must next ask whether it deceives the consumer. If so, it is difficult to understand upon what ethical principal any plea for the artificial coloring of butter can rest. If it is admitted that there is no valid reason why butter should be colored other than the artificial coloring of foods in general, which is a practice so reprehensible that it is almost universally denounced, its practice cannot be easily defended. The dairymen of our country are honest and honorable and evidently do not clearly see the false position in which the practice of coloring butter puts them. When the dairymen of our country understand that the naturally colored products will bring the highest price on the market and appeal more strongly to the confidence of the consumer it is believed the artificial coloring in butter will be relegated to the scrap pile of useless processes. It cannot be claimed in any sense that coloring of butter artificially ever adds anything to its value as a nutritive substance.
One of the claims for justifying the coloring of butter is that it distinguishes it from oleomargarine. This, however, is not the case since, under the law, oleomargarine may be colored upon the payment of a tax of ten cents per pound. The consumer has at his disposition a complete protection against fraud in the use of oleomargarine by the operation of state and federal laws, irrespective of the tint of the product. Oleomargarine and butter are distinguished from each other by their natural colors and also by their chemical and physical properties and, therefore, there can be no justification for the coloring of butter on the plea that it distinguishes it from oleomargarine.
