Preparing to make my Christmas cake, I bought these glace cherries from Coles.
I was surprised at the contents…
Was I wrong to expect at least one red cherry?
Not sure there is any evidence of the natural colour from red potato, red radish, apple or cherry. Or of food colours 100 and 129.
At least there are some actual cherries in there, some “glace cherries” are quite synthetic. The bright red of the red version of this sugared fruit is no more real than the green. Maybe you should buy some fresh cherries (once the rush is over) and sugar them yourself, it isn’t difficult just tedious.
I can see at least three what look like dark red glacé cherries on my monitor. Were you expecting bright red glacé cherries?
We used to buy a packet of red glacé cherries especially to add to the mixed fruit. It’s no longer an essential ingredient in our mix. I wonder if with the value pack there is someone in another kitchen looking at a packet with lots of red cherries wondering why there are so few other colours.
Hey put this up as, a shonky award it deserves it. I cannot believe that. Typical advertising loes usually. Ill stear clear of those if I pass the section dried fruits. Tje picture advertised looks like more like jubes.
From what I remember, glacé cherries are made using regular cherries that are bleached of all colour and flavour in a lengthy process.
Then they are soaked in a solution of food dye to make the red, green, yellow, cherries we are familiar with.
A lot of sugar, artificial colour and flavour goes in to make Glacé cherries.
In the pic there’s green and some maroon. Did they run out of bright red food colour? 
It’s a ‘Value Pack’.
Doesn’t that imply but not assure lower cost per quantity?
How does a producer best recover value from product that does not turn out looking as expected, odd batches and the ends of a run?
One would need to look at and purchase a random selection of the same product from several sites to help form an opinion. Is there fine print on the pack suggesting the contents may vary? Are there any written promises of the contents or colour and variety on the packaging?
The pack shot may be like many other products featured by the community where the presentation of the contents on the outside bears only a vague relationship to what’s inside.
In sharing the pack shots @Malabar has added to the collection. Perhaps this topic needs to be merged with like.
Sorry, does bright red colour cost more? 
That’s right, and the only difference between the glace cherries is the colour added. The red, yellow, green etc aren’t natural cherry colours, they have been added for appearance purposes only.
It is worth reading the ingredients list to see what they actually are.
Nothing says Xmas cake like some red cherries in the cake mix. It seems to me that all that Malabar was expecting was some bright red colour to say this is a Xmas cake Par Excellence!
I wonder if fresh or preserved (e.g. tinned or jar of morello cherries) should be used instead of glace cherries. There are recipes online (one of many examples), and being whole fresh/preserved cherries, they should make the cake moister than the glace ones.
The good news.
The not so good news. Another $4.50 for 200gms to add to the cost of the cake!
After several suggestions about why there are no bright red cherries in the pack not one says the obvious: that it is just a mistake, the packing line was supposed to include several colours in each packet and failed.
What about Hanlon’s razor "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity ". It is sometimes expressed “There is no need to suppose a conspiracy when simple incompetence will explain the facts”.
Yet in many cases of consumer complaints made on this forum bad intent by the manufacturer is taken as given.
I am not excusing the result, if the pack says you are getting a variety of colours that is what you should get. If it is that important ask for a replacement but speculating on the reason why is not going to make any cake or pudding look any better.
Spoiler alert!
By posting the question “Was I wrong in my expectations of the product ?” on this forum, I was not lodging a complaint or attributing stupidity or malice to Sunbeam. I am a long-time user and supporter of their products. I was merely surprised.
I emailed the company whose explanation was (short version) “The ingredients for these products are mixed together in a bulk batch of approximately 500kg at a time.
We endeavour to ensure ingredients don’t accumulate at the bottom of the mix and cluster together.However, random distribution will occur from the vibrating conveyor belts.Unfortunately this process cannot be completely controlled with the blend.Your particular packet may have been packed at the start or the end of the run.
The photograph you sent shows there is red cherries.”
My point was to note that the ingredients list of what I bought would seem to lead to the expectation red food colouring, both natural and synthetic, was used on the product. Colour 100 and 129 are both orange/reds.
I say again, my point was that Multi Glace Cherries might be expected to be multi-coloured, not all green, and the ingredients list indicates this too.
End of run “you’ve got a dud batch” does not seem to cover it. I suspect the answer lies in the Value Pack. If you want the traditional cherry-coloured cherries, you need to pay more and buy
True you had not. But that wording was from the common formulations of the saying, I said it was a mistake.
I hardly think there is any difference in the cost to colour them red or green. Coles sell all red glace cherries for less that either the red or mixed from Woolworths and some vendors like IGA charge more for the mixture than others charge for all red. That all looks like normal variation in retail pricing to me.
If they mix different colours in huge batches it seems quite possible that the mix is not certain to be evenly distributed - especially given the sticky nature of the product. I don’t see why the maker’s explanation given is not true.
Your expectation is quite reasonable. Sadly the production line technique used is not up to delivering all the time.
Not only bright red is missing but also bright yellow and bright green, although there’s more greenish than anything else, all together it looks like camouflage colour
That is true, and the cost of red, green, yellow etc colouring when added to the product is the same.
Possibly just poor mixing at the factory. Just think, there might be someone thinking, “where are my green cherries”. They are in your purchase.
But, cherries we eat aren’t artificial yellow, green or red coloured. Yes, some of the colours are colours from ‘natural’ sources, but, why is there a need to colour a cherry. Only because they are highly processed as @Gaby indicated. Maybe, for dietary health, one should look at the real deal rather than a artificially modified cherry such as glace cherries.
