Organic Caramel Color - Beef Broth

[dunie]

Hi All,

 

Quick (hopefully) question....HELP!!!!

 

I went to buy beef broth for a roast I am making tonight and the only one I found near being compliant has Organic Caramel Color in it.  All the rest had sugar or other non compliant ingredients.  I searched the forum and can't seem to find anything on it.

 

Full Ingredients:  Organic Beef Flavored Broth (water, organic beef stock), sea salt, organic beef fat, organic caramel color, organic flavor, natural flavor.

 

Thoughts????

 

Thanks in advance 

[JulieP757]

I think it's a fancy name for sugar - sorry!

 

According to the Food and Drug Administration's Code of Federal Regulations carbohydrates that may be used to produce caramel color are dextrose, invert sugar, lactose, malt syrup, molasses, starch hydrolysates (such as glucose syrup) and fractions thereof, and sucrose.

[GFChris]

Sorry, caramel color is non-compliant: it's sugar.

[dunie]

Thank you GF Chris and Julie P757!!!!

 

Water it is!

[Mitch55]

Caramel color can also be made with the use of sulfites and / or ammonia... I stay away from it all together

[NCBoilermaker]

I've done quite a bit of research on this, too.  I can easily find a compliant Chicken Broth.  However, Beef Broth has been challenging.  I though I had one with the Whole Foods brand.  I came home and researched the "Organic Caramel Color" and came across this thread, and others, saying it is sugar and makes it not compliant.

 

However, I was reading my whole 30 daily today, and it said this:

 

 Imagine Brand makes a Whole30-friendly organic chicken and beef broth, and comes in small sized containers too.

 

http://www.imaginefoods.com/products/broths-stocks

 

Going to their site, all four varieties of the beef broth they make have Organic Caramel color.  So, is the info in the whole30 daily not accurate?  Or, am I missing another product that Imagine Brand makes?

 

Thanks all!

 

[ShannonM816]

I've done quite a bit of research on this, too. I can easily find a compliant Chicken Broth. However, Beef Broth has been challenging. I though I had one with the Whole Foods brand. I came home and researched the "Organic Caramel Color" and came across this thread, and others, saying it is sugar and makes it not compliant.

However, I was reading my whole 30 daily today, and it said this:

Imagine Brand makes a Whole30-friendly organic chicken and beef broth, and comes in small sized containers too.

http://www.imaginefoods.com/products/broths-stocks

Going to their site, all four varieties of the beef broth they make have Organic Caramel color. So, is the info in the whole30 daily not accurate? Or, am I missing another product that Imagine Brand makes?

Thanks all!

It could be that they've changed their recipe since that was written, or that their recipe varies depending on where in the country you are.

For most recipes you can sub chicken or vegetable broth or stock, if you can find them. You could also consider making your own -- that way you know what's in it. Google homemade broth for instructions.

[ABS32013]

When I am making a recipe that calls for beef broth (and don't want to make it), I usually sub mushroom broth or chicken broth.

Some people are able to find beef bones at a good price to make their own beef broth. Not me. Even the bones are expensive in the Boston area.

[GFChris]

Some people are able to find beef bones at a good price to make their own beef broth. Not me. Even the bones are expensive in the Boston area.

Have you discovered M.F. Dulock in Somerville? http://www.mfdulock.com Fabulous pastured raised meats from local farms. Besides meat, I get high quality beef bones from them for $4/lb. I use 3 lbs of bones to make a gallon of broth.

Worth every penny.

[ABS32013]

Have you discovered M.F. Dulock in Somerville? http://www.mfdulock.com Fabulous pastured raised meats from local farms. Besides meat, I get high quality beef bones from them for $4/lb. I use 3 lbs of bones to make a gallon of broth.

Worth every penny.

Thank you! I will check it out!!

[cscaos]

I just want to add some thoughts for anyone who, like me, is finding this thread via Google.

Thought #1 -- I buy Swanson 100% Natural Beef Broth from Costco. It's not organic, but it's compliant as far as I can tell.

Ingredients: Beef stock. Contains less than 2% of salt, natural flavoring, yeast extract, carrots, celery, onions.

No added MSG. No caramel color.

 

Thought # 2 -- There are a bunch of threads with moderators saying that caramel color needs to be avoided because it's a sneaky sugar. Yet none of the official guidance says that. And the disparity was making me wonder if caramel color was maybe more of a gray area item and not something I needed to work really hard to avoid.

However, Melissa's stickied post from 2015 on UK "E" numbers for ingredients to avoid specifically lists two of the four types of caramel color. Her post lists E150b and E150d as non-compliant because they are sources of added sulfites. By looking at ingredient labels in the US, there's no way to know for sure if the caramel color used is one of those two types that contain sulfites or not.  Just in case, I consider it reasonable and prudent for me to avoid all forms of caramel color whenever possible.

Based on that, I prefer to use non-organic, fully-compliant beef broth rather than buying an organic one like Imagine Farms that contains caramel color.

 

Thought # 3  -- Melissa's post did not include the other forms of caramel color -- E150a and E150c -- in the UK version of the sneaky sugars list. It's hard for me to believe that was an unintentional mistake. I find it easier to believe there's some rationale behind not including them there. After all, caramel color isn't listed in the Guide to Sneaky Sugars or the Common Additives Cheat-Sheet, either.  So it's entirely possible that I'm being more restrictive than I need to in my attempts to avoid caramel color. I would understand completely if someone else chose to buy and consume organic beef broth containing caramel color and not feel as if they were breaking any rules.

As it says in the Do I Need to Start Over? answer #5 guidance, we're all adults. We each need to make our own choices. For me, at least, the rules seem unclear as to whether or not caramel color in beef broth is a compliance issue. I know what I'm choosing, but I won't judge anyone who sees it differently from me.

[cscaos]

I realized I should add a comment about yeast extract since it is listed as one of the ingredients in the Swanson beef broth I mentioned.

There are multiple forum threads about yeast extract. There's some reason to believe that it might be a code word for added MSG. And MSG is against the rules. So moderators and members often recommend avoiding broth that contains yeast extract.

Melissa replied to a thread on that topic back in 2012. She wrote that yeast extract should pose no problems for 99.99% of people and that consuming some would not require anyone to restart their Whole30.

Robin Strathdee wrote in 2013 that containing yeast extract does not make broth non-compliant.

Avoiding yeast extract might be a good idea if you have an easy way to do so. Otherwise, unless you feel unwell after consuming foods that contain yeast extract, you don't need to avoid eating them.

 

Based on that, I personally prefer to buy Swanson beef broth that contains yeast extract but no caramel color rather than organic beef broth with caramel color added.