The year is 1979, Michael Jackson has released his first solo album “Off The Wall” and Sony gives us the first Walkman portable radio and cassette player. I know I can’t be the only one having flashbacks to the early ’80’s of having one of these bad boys clipped to my jeans.
This is the same year that the fruit-flavored hard-shelled candies with a chewy inside known as ‘Skittles‘ landed in the United States from the United Kingdom. It wasn’t until 1982 that we began producing these delicious confections stateside.
The company enlisted a New York advertising agency which developed the infamous slogan ‘Taste the Rainbow’ in 1994. Arguably one of the best marketing campaigns ever executed, Skittles has consistently produced some of the most bizarre attention-grabbing commercials of all-time.
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Unfortunately for those of us who became partially addicted to these sweets, the safety of their ingredients has been questioned over the years. Production of candy and foods containing these ingredients have already been banned in other countries and now lawmakers in California are seeking to ban chemicals used in popular candies such as Skittles, Nerds, and Hot Tamales.
The proposed bill seeks to halt the manufacture, sale or distribution of any food product containing red dye No. 3, titanium dioxide, potassium bromate, brominated vegetable oil or propylparaben.
As reported by the Washington Post, the National Confectioners Association said in a statement that “Food safety is the number one priority for U.S. confectionery companies, and we do not use any ingredients in our products that do not comply with the FDA’s strictest safety standards.”
Though a government ban on Skittles in unlikely, banning the use of these ingredients would force makers to drastically revise their recipes which may alter their taste thereby affecting consumers passion for the candy.
I honestly couldn’t tell you the last time I had Skittles myself but all this talk about them got me wanting some so I made a quick trip over to the gas station.
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