Drinking bugs?

I am stupefied again by the food processing industry. They can't find better than crushed beetles, correct, crushed bugs for 'Natural Red coloring'. So if your juice or smoothie or yogurt reads, 'Natural flavors and ingredients' read closely. If it says, 'cochineal extract (color)' or 'carmine', it is bug squeeze.

BTW, only last year FDA mandated it be labeled as 'cochineal extract'. Before then, it was just 'natural red coloring'. Guess why FDA wanted the change? It was because of 'reports of severe allergic reactions'. Surely there can't be any other reason such as not wanting to drink insect body fragments, right.

FDA mandate
Article

This is from FDA:

Cochineal is a dye made from dried and ground female bodies of the scale insect Dactylopius coccus costa (Coccus cacti L.). Powdered cochineal is dark purplish red. The chief coloring principle in cochineal is carminic acid, a hydroxyanthraquinone linked to a glucose unit. Cochineal contains approximately 10 percent carminic acid; the remainder consists of insect body fragments.

... popsicle labeled as colored with carmine

... ruby redgrapefruit juice with carmine

... custard-style strawberry-banana yogurt containing carmine

 Shan R Shanmuganathan said...

Found one more article.

WSJ Article

October 11, 2006 8:27 AM