One thousand Aramark chefs have been cooking up vats of pasta and cauldrons of carbonara sauce -- and, perhaps inevitably, those pans of meatloaf of indeterminate color, that seem to be the staple of large-scale food service from school cafeterias to military mess halls.

CNN: The politics of food: A convention digest

The military distributed the same type of food rations in that country, which also were the same color as ordnance.

CNN: Rations, bomblets a different color

By adjusting the level of annatto, a seed that gives food an orange hue, he can match the color.

WSJ: Creating: A Daring Designer of Snazzy Snacks

Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign said that when the device is dipped into a food or drink, a series of color-coded dots reveals what type of sweetener is present.

CNN: Sweet! Researchers' device 'tastes' sweeteners

But the need is greatest in communities of color. 30 percent of all African Americans receive food aid from Second Harvest.

NPR: Escaping Hunger: One Man's Story