Quick, what is an all natural ingredient used to color yogurt, juice and other "health food"? Here's a hint: It's used to turn things red, or reddish purple. And it used to crawl around on cacti in the desert.
Carmine! A red dye made from dried and ground up beetles. Specifically, their abdomens that house the fertilized eggs of the cochineal beetle. Yummy! More Strawberry yogurt please!
How did we find out about this?
One of our new toys is an app Denise downloaded onto her iphone called Fooducate. You can use it to scan the bar code of items at the grocery and get food grades, reviews and hints about what the good folks at fooducate think would be a healthier product. Denise scanned one of her previously favorite yogurts and was informed that it contained bug abdomens. Needless to say, we tried a different brand.
At first, I was grossed out and not just a little bit upset. Food manufacturers go out of their way to make sure you have no clue as to what you are eating or where it comes from. The only reason the practically toothless FDA made manufacturers start listing carmine as an ingredient was the risk of allergen exposure and the rare anaphylactic reactions. The food manufacturers knew that "ground up beetle coloring" would hurt sales, so they settled on the term Carmine.
But here's the tricky part.
Which is grosser: An all natural food coloring that is made from dried, ground up insects, or the "normal" food coloring, Red#whatever, which is derived from coal tar?
Limiting your processed food intake makes more and more sense the more you know about the food like substance creation system.
Suddenly, the beetles are not nearly as icky as before, just an extra protein boost. Maybe a little bit of extra fiber.
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