Why is custard powder pink until you add the liquid, upon which it becomes yellow?
Question #117392. Asked by star_gazer.
Last updated Sep 12 2021.
Plodd
Answer has 1 vote
Plodd 16 year member
139 replies
Answer has 1 vote.
Custard powder is often coloured with a blend of tartrazine yellow or quinoline yellow food dyes, mixed with sunset yellow. In solution with water, these colours are true to their names, but in their pre-dissolved solid phase the sunset yellow portion is more orange-red, and this colour tends to dominate.
When mixed with the other custard powder components, which are white, the result is a pastel orange-red, or pink. Many pure colourants, both dyes and pigments, have a very different shade from that required in their final state.