Dying Easter eggs is an age-old tradition, but many Americans are looking for a more natural way to get those signature pastel colors, particularly with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent push for fewer synthetic dyes in food.

Melissa Wright, director of Virginia Tech’s Food Producer Technical Assistance Network in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, has advice on how to use ingredients you might already have in your kitchen to safely and naturally dye eggs this year. 

“There are many foods that can impart color to eggshells,” Wright said. “Yellow coloring can come from saffron, turmeric, or carrots; red or pink from beets, raspberries, or blueberries; green from spinach or matcha; and blue from purple cabbage.”

Not only can Easter egg dyes be a fun food science experiment, but they also don’t prevent you from having a tasty snack at the end of the process.

“There is nothing about dying eggs that makes them unsafe for consumption,” Wright said. “You should consider how the eggs are stored, however, to make sure they remain safe to eat. Once you have hard boiled an egg, the protective coating is removed from the shell, which leaves pores in the shell for bacteria to enter.”

Whether using dyed eggs for a hunt or a snack, it is still important to keep food safety guidelines in mind to ensure no one gets sick.

“Hard boiled eggs should be consumed within one week of preparation,” Wright said. “They should be kept under refrigeration temperatures of less than 40 degrees Fahrenheit until consumption. Any eggs, hard-boiled or raw, used for an Easter egg hunt should not be consumed if they are outside of refrigeration temperatures for more than two hours, or one hour if the outside temperature is above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Wright suggests the following process for naturally dying Easter eggs:

• Prepare the coloring solutions first by adding the chosen ingredient(s) to water and boiling.
• More water will result in a diluted color, while less water will result in a more concentrated color.
•  Remove the solids using a strainer, slotted spoon, or by filtering them out.
• Add a teaspoon of white vinegar to each color solution to help the color adhere to the shell of the eggs.
• Prepare your hard boiled eggs by covering them in a pot with cold water and bringing the whole pot to a rolling boil of at least 212 F.
•  Remove from the heat and let the eggs cook for 15 minutes.
• Remove the eggs from the water and cool them quickly in an ice bath, then dry and refrigerate them until ready to decorate.
• After ensuring your eggs are dry, place them in your chosen color or color mixture. The longer the eggs are in the dye solution, the darker the color will be.

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