Best before?

I was keeping an eye open for out-of-date food when I helped my parents unpack last week. The opened tube of anchovy paste "Best before MAR 1993" went straight out, the unopened tin of anchovies "Best before JUN 1996" might well have been OK but I wasn't taking a chance, then I discovered the old box of food colouring that I remember so well as a boy in the early/mid1970's. I was fascinated, partly by the blending instructions [see extra] and partly because they never seemed to be used!

Food colouring doesn't seem to have a "Best before" date, and these probably pre-date such labelling anyway, but the main ingredients (amanarth, tartrazine and green S) are condemned variously as harmful to carcinogenic. The US seems particularly tough on the dangers of colourants [pity they don't have such an enlightened attitude when it comes to guns]. Isn't the internet wonderful! I even discovered someone trying to sell an incomplete set of these colourings for $30! I don't think I'll get into this market, though. That said, I can't bring myself to bin them!

Got up early enough to see the sun before "flaming June" degenerated into a soggy windy mess.