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Warning: if you have a delicate stomach—stop reading this now. Ditto if you're eating.

For you heartier souls out there… A show of hands, please: How many of you know that many common foods and beverages with a blush—think yogurt, ice cream, candies, fruit drinks—get their reddish (pinkish, purplish or orange) glow from carmine and cochineal, colorings extracted from the dried bodies of teensy female cochineal insects, sometimes referred to as cochineal beetles?

Think we're kidding? If only. The fact is that until now, unbeknownst to most consumers, food and cosmetic companies have had the luxury of listing these bug juices, so to speak, simply as "artificial colors" or "color added" in their ingredients.

Feel sick? Join the club. The good news: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week, under pressure from consumer advocates, ruled that manufacturers that use these pigments in eats and makeup must begin listing them by name, albeit they are not required to disclose they hail from insects.

"Naming those ingredients on labels will help people who suffered allergic reactions determine if the colors were the culprits," Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), said in a statement after the rule change was announced. But he added that the agency should have gone further, given that many unwitting consumers may be sensitive to—not to mention revolted by the notion of—bug bits in their grub.

CSPI petitioned the feds a decade ago to clearly label or ban the additives after physicians in Switzerland, France and the U.S. (most notably allergist James Baldwin at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor) found that carmine and cochineal extract could cause allergic reactions ranging from sneezing to asthma as well as anaphylactic shock in some sensitive individuals.

"Ideally, the FDA should have exterminated these critter-based colorings altogether. The only way people can determine that they are sensitive to them is to suffer repeated reactions, including potentially life-threatening anaphylactic reactions," Jacobson said. "Also, the FDA should have required labels to disclose that carmine and cochineal are extracted from insects, which many consumers—including vegetarians, Jews and Muslims—would be interested to know."  Ya think?

Bon appétit.

Editor's Note (posted 1/11/09): In response to some concerns about the entomological accuracy of this post and photo, we have taken down the image that was originally posted, because it appears not to be a cochineal insect. We are checking with the source of that photo to confirm its identity. The term "beetle" is often used to describe this insect, but we have changed the wording in the post to "cochineal insect" for strict accuracy. This post is based on the FDA's announced rule change, which was published on January 5 and which we link to in the blog (and again here) for interested readers eager to know more about how the agency reached its conclusions.

9 Comments

1. 1. James Hathaway 01:44 PM 1/9/09

   Let's be accurate here -- the cochineal insect (Dactylopius coccus) is NOT a beetle (coleoptera), but a true bug (hemiptera). This is Scientific American, after all...

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2. 2. rogersgeorge 02:08 PM 1/9/09

   I'm not aware of any food whose standard for uninvited animal parts is zero. That's more gruesome than processed cochineal for food coloring. Sounds to me as if the writer is sensationalizing a wee bit. (Does increase the readership, though...)

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3. 3. krabcat 04:39 PM 1/9/09

   i do not see a problem with the FDA's decision. as long as the insect/bug bits are not overly noticeable. in many cultures, bugs, insects, and many other creepy crawly things are considered delicacies and/or common foods. i do however believe that the general population should be aware of what they eat, but if they are too lazy to find out what carmine and cochineal are than it is their own fault
   
   and just so you know, the colorings are most likely not the only bug-bits you consume every single day. especially if you are eating highly processed foods.

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4. 4. Mario Pineda-Krch 06:26 PM 1/9/09

   The world would be a better place if humans consumed more bugs, not only are they more nutritious than most of the junk we put into our mouths, they are easy and more environmentally friendly to raise (you can raise worms for dinner in your own backyard compost) and 'bug' fewer animal rights activist. So stop being so squeamish and sensationalizing and smarten up.

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5. 5. bug_girl 07:41 PM 1/9/09

   Sadly, the author has just repeated the CSPI call for a ban without any research at all. So, she not only included their horrific taxonomic mistake, she also repeated their entomophobic call for a ban.
   
   Labeling, fine, but a ban not only removes one of the few non-coal/petroleum dyes from our use, but will harm subsistence farmers in South America.
   
   Some background info (which this author should have done--shame on you for repeating a press release unchallenged!!)
   
   http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1302796
   
   http://membracid.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/center-for-science-in-the-public-interest-taxonomy-fail/
   
   

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6. 6. Happy Phil 11:12 PM 1/9/09

   Thank you bug_girl. I learned about this bug being the source of red coloring from an article in the 70's. I usually find out what I am buying and eating before I eat a lot of it. The internet has saved me many trips to the library in recent years. At least these cactus bugs are natural. If you look up natural flavors, you will find that they are mostly MSG and laboratory concoctions.

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7. 7. marimoy 06:04 PM 1/10/09

   Shame on you SciAm. You should have a fact checker. Please get your information correct and do not perpetuate bug-phobias. It's silly. These dyes are much healthier than odd chemical and petroleum based things we put in our bodies everyday. Please change your picture as well. It is embarrassing to real scientists.

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8. 8. ZenaV 10:37 PM 1/12/09

   Ugh. Bunch of bug eaters....Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, think I'll go eat a bowl full of ice cream mixed with bugssss.......

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9. 9. bernie bear 06:21 AM 2/1/09

   Bugs...hmmm yummy. I like them fried with peanut butter. Really if americans are truly worried about this they're far more pernickety than I give a pioneer nation credit for:) I'd be far more worried about an artificial flavourant than a natural one. I think its a selling point not a detriment. Yes poor show on the bug/beetle mix up, a little homework could've saved that embarassment. Bug love from cape town (SA)!

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