Where do we stand on…

charcoal food

It’s official: black is the new black. OK, not black exactly, but charcoal. Charcoal is the new black, and though it looks like it might kill us, the trend for charcoalcoloured food is taking off everywhere, from trendy east London to New York. Meanwhile, those who can’t put a morsel in their mouth without first posting a picture to Instagram have delighted in snapping photos of hazardous-looking charcoal burger buns, toasties, croissants, ice creams and crackers. Or they could be biscuits. They’re too dark to tell.

Now, we have been led to believe by various scientific studies over the years that eating black food is bad for us. Burnt toast, for instance, is a big no-no and likely to cause instant death. So how, we cry, can this newfangled charcoal food possibly be good for us?

Well, it might not be actively healthgiving (especially if we’re talking about ice cream), but apparently it’s far less toxic than it looks.

The goth-like hue of the foods in question is the result of activated charcoal – the by-product of burning coconut shells, wood or other plant materials. This is not the same process as burning something to a cinder and then eating it, apparently. Be that as it may, we can’t help feeling just a little turned off. Black pudding is one thing (and yes, we know it’s made of pig’s blood, and no, it still doesn’t bother us). But we fail to see what eating a black croissant could possibly bring to our lives. Don’t get us wrong, we didn’t like the trend for rainbow-coloured unicorn food, either: too silly and too faddish by far.

Let food look like food, we say. It tastes better that way. Rosa Silverman