The Bartender’s Guide to Skittles
I’ve been reading lately that Skittles are being banned in parts of the USA and Europe. That made me think of all the bottles of vodka I’ve seen in bars in the USA that are being infused with the colorful candy. So is this a way to make. alcohol even more dangerous? Agave Road Trip’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Ryan Aycock doesn’t candy-coat his response in this episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with Agave Road Trip Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Ryan Aycock.
Episode Notes
Check out Simply Cocktails by Dr. Ryan Aycock, the Cocktail MD!
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB418
A bill has passed the California house, but not the Senate, that would ban several food substances including red #3 (erythrosine) and titanium dioxide. We spoke earlier about food additives and discussed that food dyes are associated with hyperactivity in children. As a result of those concerns, countries such as Finland, Norway, and the United Kingdom have and several food coloring agents such as Blue #1 and Yellow #6.
Lots of foods contain Red #3 such as skittles, nerds, peeps, and Pez.
Red #3 is a complex molecule with four iodine atoms. It is created from petroleum.
Consumer Reports has petition the Food and Drug Administration to have red #3 remove from the market.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5917475/pdf/CAS-79-314.pdf
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2824305/
https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/sites/default/files/ntp/htdocs/lt_rpts/tr281.pdf
The FDA banned Red #3 back in 1990 from cosmetics based on data that it may cause thyroid cancer in rats at doses much higher than would be expected in a human diet. These results of tumors were inconsistent.
Red #3 in increasing amounts caused zebrafish embryos to have congenital defects.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2177442/
Rats were bred for three generations and giving increasing amounts of red #3 among different families. The body weights of parents and pups were significantly reduced in all generations at the 4.0% dietary concentration. There were no reproductive abnormalities observed.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9168006/
In a Petri dish, human breast tissue cells that were already at risk of developing cancer had increased growth when exposed to red #3.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28893156/
In another petri dish experiment, human liver cells were exposed to red and yellow food dyes, showing that at highly concentrated amounts for 20 contact hours led to DNA damage within the cells.
https://inchem.org/documents/jecfa/jecmono/v44jec17.htm
Americans typically consume 0.2-0.4 mg of red #3 each day.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0041008X87900524
In this human trial performed on real life people, 30 men were divided up into groups to receive either 20, 60, or 200 mg/day of red #3. The men in the 200 mg/day group had increases in their thyroid stimulating hormone, but no group experienced changes in the more important T3 and T4.
Delaney Clause: Legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in 1958 that forbids the addition to food of any additives shown to be carcinogenic in any species of animal or in humans.
>> what can I use as an alternative?
McComick has introduced a line of natural food coloring agents under the label Nature’s Inspiration. These products contain colors from such as beet juice and turmeric
>> and now for some information about titanium dioxide
("TITANIUM DIOXIDE" OR TiO2 OR titania)
TiO2 nanoparticles clean tequila vinasse
You are already familiar with metal oxides in the form of rust, which is iron oxide. Titanium dioxide is another type of metal oxide that has been used in sunscreen, occasionally in paint, and is also used as an anti-caking agent in food. There is no evidence that titanium dioxide penetrates the skin. Further, there are no case reports of workers who handle titanium dioxide developing any illnesses.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0960327114530742
TiO2 nanoparticles lead to decreased mitotic division of fetal amniotic fluid cells.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3616827/
However, titanium dioxide does not appear to be absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract. In this study, rats were given titanium dioxide every day for 13 weeks. Based on subsequent blood testing, the researchers concluded that there was minimal titanium dioxide absorbed.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6914717/
Review article. Kind of alarmist in that it presents a summary of mostly rat studies showing that when animals eat or inhale titanium dioxide at rates that are 200 times what humans would be expected to encounter, the particles accumulate in the liver and spleen.
>> skittles-infused vodka and distilled skittles.
I could not find any articles on mixing red #3 with alcohol for consumption. The way I see it, you are already eating the skittles. Soaking them in vodka would not give you any additional dye contact.