2000jun09. Mail.
are you sure that the dye contained in haw flakes is the safe one?
check out this page on the FDA site
which seems to indicate otherwise.
– andy
That page chronicles the US detention of haw flakes (and slices) from a company named “Zibo Minyue Food Co., Ltd.” The two companies that I have purchased haw flakes from (and are discussed on other pages) are named “Shan Zha Bing,” and “Sunflower.” Now, perhaps Zibo Minyue owns or is somehow responsible for the product for each or both of these companies. I don’t know. More contact and background information about Zibo Minyue is available at this page (which is no longer up, of course), which will cause anyone familiar with the Tufte school of visualization to twitch uncontrollably.
But considering the content of the page, as difficult as that is to do, it appears that Zibo Minyue is a new company, whereas the haw flakes from Shan Zha Bing and Sunflower certainly look, from the packaging alone (this is Sunflower; if I remember correctly, Shan Zha Bing looks mysteriously the same minus said flower on the top of the package) as if they've been around forever. And hey, the package lists only two ingredients: haw, and sugar. As I mentioned in the article, the color is completely unappetizing – it looks like some new company figured on eliminating this roadblock to increased sales but their zeal has defeated them! DEFEATED THEM I TELL YOU!