Researchers have discovered a brilliant blue food coloring. The new cyan blue, obtained from red cabbage, could be an alternative to synthetic blue food colorings such as the widely used FD&C Blue Number 1. “Blue colors are really quite rare in nature—a lot of them are really reds and purples,” says Pamela Denish, a graduate student working with Justin Siegel at the University of California, Davis, chemistry department and Innovation Institute for Food and Health. Having the right blue color is also important for mixing other colors, such as green. If the blue isn’t right, it will produce muddy, brown colors when mixed, Siegel says.