How come there's no naturally colored blue food?

Question

Blueberries are purple. Jellies, jams, and candy don't count!

Answer 1

Could be that the visible blue light is easily absorbed.


If you check out what wavelength goes with a color, we may get a better understanding of it.

Our eyes are sensitive to light which lies in a very small region of the electromagnetic spectrum labeled "visible light". This "visible light" corresponds to a wavelength range of 400 - 700 nanometers (nm) and a color range of violet through red.

The visible colors from shortest to longest wavelength are: violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.

Earth's most important energy source is the Sun. Sunlight consists of the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

Blue Light
The visible blue light has a wavelength of about 475 nm. Because the blue wavelengths are shorter in the visible spectrum, they are scattered more efficiently by the molecules in the atmosphere. This causes the sky to appear blue.

Green Light
The visible green light has a wavelength of about 510 nm. Grass, for example, appears green because all of the colors in the visible part of the spectrum are absorbed into the leaves of the grass except green. Green is reflected, therefore grass appears green.

For the rest of the colors, please check out:

http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/EDDOCS/Wavelengths_for_Colors.html

Answer 2

Who said there are no naturally occuring blue foods? Never heard of a Damson or a lilly pilly? There are numerous blue fruits out there, take a look at the links below for some examples

But you're right, blue is rare compared to other colours for fruit. That's because blue doesn't show up very well against green leaves. Remember, fruits evolved bright colours so that birds would notice them and eat them, thus spreading the seeds. There is no point in evolving a colour that doesn't stand out against the foliage, you may as well just keep the fruit green.

Those fruit which are blue are usually not flying bird dispersed. Rather they fall to the forest floor and are dispersed by mammals such as rats and pigs or groaund birds such as turkeys. That makes sense when you realise that tree leaves absorb red light. As a result red objects on the forest floor look black. But tree leaves don't absorb blue light, so blue fruit lying on a carpet of brown leaves stand out much better than red fruit.

It's all about attracting animals to eat the fruit. In the canopy amongst the leaves reds and yellow stand out more. In the shade of the forest floor blues and purples work better.

Answer 3

Blue potatoes. Blue corn.
And why don't blueberries count, purple has blue in it.
Here is an interesting article about blue:
http://www.colormatters.com/appmatters.html

Answer 4

A picture speaks louder than words...check out the Blueray Blueberries:

http://www.noursefarms.com/catalog/blueberries/all_blueberry_varieties/blueray_blueberries/

Jersey blueberries :
http://www.noursefarms.com/catalog/blueberries/all_blueberry_varieties/jersey_blueberries/

Answer 5

I think a true blue tone is hard for a lot of plants to do. For this reason some plant breeders, such as roses, have not been able to get a real blue flower.

Answer 6

Ryan, Blueberries are blue. They have never looked purple to me in my whole life.
Do you have some colorblindness?(I am just kidding) Now, there are purple cabbages...purple plums...

Answer 7

there is !!! blue corn chips are naturally colored aren't they?? I'm going to read the other answers now to see what everyone else thought.

Answer 8

Burpees has a blue pole bean

Answer 9

could it be that blue is the shortest wavelength in the visible spectrum?

and the atmosphere has slightly changed after our eyes evolved?

Answer 10

eat the indigo plan, it's almost blue.
otherwise I don't know, why are there no naturally colored white foods? colliflour isn't truely white