One thing I cannot stand for my children to consume is artificial food dyes. Sure, they turn food into crazy colored balls of fun, but they don’t serve a nutritional purpose and whether you believe they are harmful or not (which I do), there is just no need for them to be so prolific in our food supply. Especially children’s. Because my family focuses on eating real foods instead of pre-packaged or processed foods whenever possible, we don’t eat many of the artificial-dye-laden food items typically marketed to kids, like Cheetos snacks, Froot Loops cereal, Pop-Tarts and Hostess Twinkies.
But let’s be honest – even when you make most of your own food like we do, dyes can still sometimes make the food more fun – especially for Holidays, Birthdays or other special occasions. So I have been on the hunt for the best all natural food dyes, and I’m excited to say I have found them!
Introducing Maggie’s Naturals! From the makers of eco-kids art supplies (another eco-friendly and non-toxic product family I love!) comes Maggie’s Naturals food dyes made from…you guessed it…real food! Yay! The two companies (eco-kids and Maggie’s Naturals) are a family business rooted with the same philosophy, to bring all natural ingredients into our everyday lives.
Just like eco-kids uses all natural ingredients in their art supplies, Maggie’s Naturals takes it to the kitchen. Through the use of all natural plant, fruit and vegetable extracts, Maggie’s Naturals wants to change the way you add color to your recipes by introducing you to the company’s natural food coloring line.
With Maggie’s Naturals natural food coloring you won’t cringe every time your child puts a homemade frosted cupcake in their mouth. You’ll know your food, because you know your ingredients. It’s time to change the standard and go back to the farm!
I had the opportunity to try out a complete set of the All-Natural, Gluten-Free Maggie’s Naturals food coloring Variety Pack which holds six 2 oz. bottles: one of each of their 6 colors, blue, green, pink, orange, brown and yellow. And I am VERY pleased with the results! Not only do they produce great colors, the dyes are not concentrated or thick like other natural food dyes I’ve tried, so adding Maggie’s Naturals‘ colors doesn’t affect the texture of the foods I’m working with. Double yay!
Here are a couple of pics I snapped of projects I used the colors for this month, to give you an idea. I like the colors light like this. But deeper colors could easily be achieved by using more coloring.
Independence Day Mini-Cupcake “Flag” decorated by my 2 and 4 year olds, without worrying about toxic dyes on their skin or in their mouths:
Ready to get some Maggie’s Naturals Food Dyes for your own family? You can buy them online at MaggiesNaturals.com. Want to win some? Maggie’s Naturals has generously offered up a full Variety Pack including all six colors (worth $60!) to a lucky Healthy Home Magazine Reader!
ENTER BELOW FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN:
- +1 Like Maggie’s Naturals on Facebook
- +1 Follow eco-kids USA on Twitter
- +1 Like Healthy Home Magazine on Facebook
- +1 Follow Healthy Home Magazine on Twitter (@HealthyHomeMag)
- +1 Follow Healthy Home Magazine (@HealthyHomeMag) on Pinterest
- +1 Subscribe to Healthy Home Magazine’s Newsletter via email
- +1 Subscribe to Healthy Home Magazine’s RSS feed
- +1 Add Healthy Home Magazine to one of your circles on Google+
- +1 Share this giveaway with your friends/followers and post a comment below to let us know you did. You may Tweet or post to Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/G+ for a +1 entry once per day thru August 15th).
Note: All Entries must be received by August 15, 2012 at 11:59pm PST to be eligible to win. Additional eligibility: You must enter a comment below for each action you complete in order to qualify for the mandatory entry and each +1 entry (otherwise we won’t know you completed the entry!). Winner will be selected via Random.org, winning entry will be verified and winner will be notified via email by August 25, 2012. Sponsor will ship product directly to winner within 30 days of shipping address confirmation.
Related articles
- Greener, Leaner Birthday Celebrations (Healthy Home Magazine)
- World’s Best Homemade Play Dough Recipe (Healthy Home Magazine)
- Keep the Toxins Out of Your Body with the 3 Points of Entry (Healthy Home Magazine)
Full disclosure: We were provided with a full sized sample for review purposes and were not otherwise compensated for this article. All views expressed are those of the author.
The ingredients are comforting: my family is vegan and tries to eat mostly whole foods, but sometimes my daughter wants to make things like “cupcakes that look like winter with blue frosting.” These colors would be perfect for those special treats!
Also, I “like” healthy home and maggie’s naturals on facebook, and follow the hh pinterest.
side note: Your link to Maggie’s Naturals, right after “mandatory entry” goes to Patagonia Shoes, for some reason.
Thanks so much, Stephanie! I got the link fixed – really appreciate you letting me know!
My kids love making cupcakes for birthdays and holidays. I always try to make our own food coloring since I can not stand color additives. I cringe when I see a birthday cake with colored frosting that my kids devour. I would love to try something new to make treats fun and safe.
I love decorating sugar cookies with royal icing but I’m so deterred by the artificial food dyes – I would love to be able to decorate the cookies AND feel good about eating/serving them!
I follow Maggie’s Naturals on FB (as Floptimism)
I also follow Healthy Home Magazine on FB (as Floptimism)
I shared this on FB (link: https://www.facebook.com/Floptimism/posts/270076953101969)
I follow @ecokidsUSA on twitter (as @petitanana)
I also follow @HealthyHomeMagazine on twitter (as @petitanana)
I follow a few of your boards on pinterest (as Floptimism)
I subscribe to your emails (floptimism@yahoo.com)
And I subscribed via RSS! (floptimism@yahoo.com)
I liked Maggie’s Naturals on Facebook
I liked Healthy Home Magazine on Facebook
I am following Healthy Home Magazine on Pinterest
I subscribed to Healthy Home Magazine’s newsletter
I’m seeing some birthday cake decorating in my future!
I would love to win to make fun things with my 3 year old!
I like maggies naturals on facebook
I follow ecokidsusa on twitter as JuliaLittleBit
I follow healthy home mag on Facebook as Julia Mangan
I follow healthy home mag on twitter as JuliaLittleBit
I follow healthy home mag on pinterest as julamber
I follow healthy home mag via rss (google reader)
I’d like to win Maggie’s Naturals’ all-natural food coloring set because then I could add color to play-doh and frosting! I don’t use any color because I don’t like the ingredients and I’ve been searching for something like this. Thanks for the opportunity!
I’d love to win because I miss baking rainbow colored desserts! (And they cost a LOT more than I’d like to pay!)
I like Maggie’s Naturals on Facebook.
I like Healthy Home Magazine on Facebook
Following Healthy Home Magazine on Pinterest
I subscribe to Healthy Home Magazine’s Newsletter via email
I subscribe to Healthy Home Magazine’s RSS feed
I added Healthy Home Magazine to my circle on Google+
Tweeted! https://twitter.com/TheSuperVegan/status/233092056531210241
I follow Healthy home Magazine on pinterest
I would love to win to make lots and lots of delicious cupcakes and also cakes all the colors are pretty.
I like Healthy Magazine on Facebook
I like Maggie’s naturals on facebook
I make a lot of my own buttercream frosting and I’d love not to add so much fake color. I try to restrict too many artificial colors and ingredients, but they seem to be everywhere…..
Tweet Tweet! https://twitter.com/NewMommiezBlend/status/233440431663378432
https://twitter.com/TheSuperVegan/status/233498030945472512
I have been looking for a non-toxic food coloring!
Liked their page!
I love that these food colors are safe for my family. There are so many unhealthy things in our world that we can’t do anything about, why not make the easy choice to use non-toxic when we can?
I liked Maggie’s Naturals on Facebook.
I follow home Healthy Magazine on Pinterest.
I like Healthy Home Magazine on Facebook.
https://twitter.com/TheSuperVegan/status/234148918697533440
https://twitter.com/TheSuperVegan/status/234477101535883264
https://twitter.com/NewMommiezBlend/status/234885270342873088
https://twitter.com/TheSuperVegan/status/235091733543780352
i like that these are made from safe ingredients
Like Healthy Home Magazine on Facebook
Follow Healthy Home Magazine on Twitter (@HealthyHomeMag)
Follow Healthy Home Magazine (@HealthyHomeMag) on Pinterest
Subscribe to Healthy Home Magazine’s RSS feed
Add Healthy Home Magazine to one of your circles on Google+
I would love to win because I make gourmet cupcakes for baby showers and wedding’s and these dyes would be fabulous to use!
I like Healthy Home Magazine on FB as Mechele JOhnson
I follow HHM on Twitter as @mmjohnson55
I follow HHM on Pinterest as Mechele JOhnson.
I am a newsletter subscriber.
I follow HHM on G+ as mechele johnson
I subscribe to HHM rss feed as mmjohnson555(at)gmail(dot)com
https://twitter.com/TheSuperVegan/status/235594792896184320
I follow on Google+
Klydra Pugh
I follow Healthy Home Magazine by email.
klydrapugh@gmail.com
https://twitter.com/TheSuperVegan/status/235917383334764544
I want to know that the food my family and my child ingests is safe. I normally avoid food dyes, but a kit from Maggie’s would allow me to add a little color back into our lives!
I “liked” Maggie’s Naturals on Facebook
I follow Eco Kids USA on Twitter.
I Like Healthy Home Magazine on Facebook.
I Follow Healthy Home Magazine on Twitter,
I follow Healthy Home Magazine on Pinterest.
I added Healthy Home Magazine to my circle on Google+
I would love to win this since I only buy natural/ organic foods for my kids. I don’t want to deprive them of treats but so many have chemical dyes in them and I avoid those for health reasons. Thanks for the giveaway. I follow all sites listed on FB and Twitter for extra entries.