What are crushed bugs doing in food, makeup?
Unknown and unnoticed by most consumers, the juice of a tiny beetle first used by 16th century Spanish explorers is responsible for red, pink, orange and purple coloring in hundreds of U.S. products. Now, the Food and Drug Administration has decided to make food and cosmetic manufacturers identify the buggy source of carmine or cochineal extract, which may be identified only as “color added” in a product’s list of ingredients. There is no way to tell how many products contain the dyes, said Mike Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington: “It can be anything red.” Or other colors: Cochineal is bright orange, while its more purified form, known as carmine, is vivid red. They also may be found in purple or pink coloring. Center for Science in the Public Interest has spent the last decade attempting to get the ingredient banned, based on reports of severe allergic reactions to the coloring, but even it hasn’t been able to accumulate a compl
