Food Dye
You may want to think twice before eating your favorite strawberry yogurt from now on. According to the FDA, the red food coloring — called cochineal extract — found in popsicles, candy, strawberry yogurt, fruit drinks and even artificial crabmeat is made from the dried, ground bodies of an insect called Dactylopius coccus costa.
Native to Peru, the beetles feed on red cactus berries. The berries’ color accumulates in the female and its un-hatched larvae before the insects are then collected, dried and ground into pigment.
It takes approximately 70,000 insects to produce one pound of carmine. Carmine was not required to be specifically listed in a food product’s ingredients and usually fell under the category “artifical color.” But in response to reports of severe allergic reactions due to carmine, the FDA ruled in January 2009 all foods containing carmine have it listed on the label.
By Jonny Bowden
Source:
http://www.aolhealth.com/