What are the red/orange specks in Clif Bars?

September 16, 2013 9:43 PM

I've tried two flavors of Clif Bars recently - White Chocolate Macadamia Nut and Crunchy Peanut Butter. In both, I noticed tiny reddish-orange specks throughout the bar. There's nothing in the ingredients list that stands out to me as being the cause of these specks. (They're about the size of a period and quite intensely colored - more than I would expect from, say, carrot flakes, which aren't a listed ingredient anyway.) Any idea what the specks are?
posted by st elmo's fire to Food & Drink (5 answers total)

Looks like they are both made with flaxseed. (My husband eats them, and I've had a few but I never looked that close I guess.) However a Google for Flaxseed comes up with seeds that are reddish orange. They are also made with date paste and dates are a reddish/orange color as well.

If you want a for sure answer, you can always contact them.
posted by Crystalinne at 9:52 PM on September 16, 2013 [2 favorites]

Date paste.
posted by Swisstine at 10:28 PM on September 16, 2013

Haha I just ate those two exact Clif bars for the first time last week. I thought it was the date paste.
posted by stoneandstar at 10:49 PM on September 16, 2013

i agree with date paste.
posted by nadawi at 7:01 AM on September 17, 2013

Yes, date bits. I made similar snack bars myself last week with only cashew nuts and dates run through the blender, and a few days later, the date bits have turned bright red.
posted by The Toad at 2:15 PM on September 17, 2013