Editing Kipper (section)

==Colouring==
[[File:Red herring.jpg|thumb|left|"Red herring": Cold-smoked herring (Scottish kippers), brined and dyed so that their flesh achieves a reddish colour]]

A kipper is also sometimes referred to as a ''red herring'', although particularly strong curing is required to produce a truly red kipper.<ref>{{cite web | author=Quinion, Michael | author-link=Michael Quinion | year=2002| title=The Lure of the Red Herring | work=WorldWideWords | url=http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/herring.htm | access-date=21 April 2007}}</ref>
The term appears in [[The Treatise (Walter of Bibbesworth)|a mid-13th century poem]] by the Anglo-Norman poet [[Walter of Bibbesworth]], "He eteþ no ffyssh But heryng red."<ref>{{Cite book|editor-last=Rothwell|editor-first=William|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hmocAQAAIAAJ|title=Femina: (Trinity College, Cambridge MS B.14.40)|date=2005|publisher=Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub|isbn=978-0-9552124-0-6|page=27|author-link=Walter of Bibbesworth |author-last=Bibbesworth | author-first=Walter de | orig-date= c. 1250}}</ref> [[Samuel Pepys]] used it in his diary entry of 28 February 1660: "Up in the morning, and had some red herrings to our breakfast, while my boot-heel was a-mending, by the same token the boy left the hole as big as it was before."<ref>{{cite web | author=Pepys Samuel | author-link=Samuel Pepys | year=1893| title=The Diary of Samuel Pepys M.A. F.R.S. | work=Samuel Pepys' Diary | url=http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1660/02/28/index.php | access-date=21 February 2006}}</ref>

The dyeing of kippers was introduced as an economy measure in the [[First World War]] by avoiding the need for the long smoking processes.  This allowed the kippers to be sold quickly, easily and for a substantially greater profit.  Kippers were originally dyed using a coal tar dye called [[brown FK]] (the FK is an abbreviation of "for kippers"), kipper brown or kipper dye. Today, kippers are usually brine-dyed using a natural [[annatto]] dye, giving the fish a deeper orange/yellow colour.  European Community legislation limits the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of Brown FK to 0.15&nbsp;mg/kg. Not all fish caught are suitable for the dyeing process, with mature fish more readily sought, because the density of their flesh improves the absorption of the dye. An ''orange kipper'' is a kipper that has been dyed orange.{{Cn|date=December 2024}}

Kippers from the [[Isle of Man]] and some [[Scotland|Scottish]] producers are not dyed; instead, the smoking time is extended in the traditional manner.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.deliaonline.com/ingredients/ingredients-a-z/Ingredients-j-l/Kippers.html|title=Kippers|access-date=2 March 2016}}</ref>
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