Green Ketchup? Wow, What Dyed?

The H.J. Heinz Co. titillated the world this summer with news that it’s launching a green ketchup--Blastin’ Green to be exact, fortified with Vitamin C, packaged in an easy-to-squirt plastic bottle and transformed with blue and yellow food colorings. But you have to be colorblind not to have noticed all the other kid-catching products that have already had a dye job.

For if ketchup can be green, why can’t oatmeal be blue? And indeed it is, at least after it’s showered with boiling water. With Quaker Oats Sea Adventures, a “blue sea with sharks, treasures and divers magically appears as you stir!” reads the box.

The product, introduced last fall, is part of the trend called “eatertainment,” says Quaker spokeswoman Lisa Piasecki. Market research shows that kids are “so into” video games and other interactive activities--with their pulsating colors, shapes and sounds--that they need to be entertained even while they eat, Piasecki says.

Children “live in a Technicolor world,” agrees Deb Magness, spokeswoman for Heinz. “They think anything can be colored.”

In addition, they “like to evoke change,” says Nabisco spokeswoman Ann Smith. That was the concept behind Oreo Magic Dunkers, a six-week promotional item that finished its tour in June. It looked like a regular Oreo, but when it was dunked in milk, a water-soluble food coloring was released from the dark chocolate cookie, turning the milk blue. “The more you dunked, the bluer it got,” says Smith.

Kids can be entertained with Dannon Sprinkl’ins Color Creations, vanilla yogurt packaged with a different-colored sprinkle under each cup lid. Stir the Pixie Dust into the yogurt and surprise! The green crystals turn the yogurt blue, the yellow turns it pink, the red turns it yellow and the blue turns it green!

With Good Humor-Breyer’s Lick-a-Color pops, every layer of licking exposes a new flavor and color; Nesquick cereal turns white milk into chocolate milk, and Mott’s has waved its magic wand to make bright blue, green and red applesauces.

“It’s another way for parents to feed their kids a wholesome, healthy snack without forcing it down their throats,” says Mott’s spokesman Chris Curran. “There’s something about eating blue applesauce that really appeals to kids.”

But do all these colorful gimmicks appeal to nutritionists? “It’s a shame food companies can’t use real fruits and vegetables to color things,” says Nancy Chapman, president of N. Chapman Associates, a nutrition consulting firm in the District of Columbia. “They’re not adding things that boost nutrition.”

Barbara Pearl, an Illinois nutritionist and author of “Brown Bag Success: Making Healthy Lunches Your Kids Won’t Trade” (John Wiley & Sons, 1997) has a somewhat different take. “If it gets kids to try a new food or eat a food that’s healthy for them, I don’t see a problem,” says Pearl, adding that’s as long as these foods aren’t replacing healthier choices.

Then, of course, there’s the chance that sustained Technicolor eating may lead to strange notions of how food really looks, let alone how it’s grown and produced.

“Kids are still into fantasy. You grow out of that. I doubt they’ll ever think oatmeal is naturally blue,” says Quaker Oats’ Piasecki. Then again, “I guess there’s always that possibility.”