Pink Foods Often Dyed With Bug Parts

Now THIS is totally disgusting, especially to someone like me who is a vegan. I DO NOT EAT ANIMAL PRODUCTS, so not only do I now have to wonder if what I'm eating has bugs in it, these companies don't have to tell me! What if someone was allergic and died for crissake? How can today's society be so unbelievably uncaring? They put no value on human decency at all! And as much as I love making spaghetti.....


Jan 7th 2009
By Julieanne Smolinski


Freaked out by the idea of tiny legs, arms and wings in your food? Just remember to stop when you see red.

Many pink- and red-colored food, makeup and household products are tinted with the dyes carmine and cochineal. These natural hues come from the dried, dessicated bodies of the female cochineal bug. (Which is not, unfortunately, a naturally pink animal.)

The FDA, which regulates the amount of biological material in food products, recently moved to get companies to disclose the use of bug-based dyes in foods. But, as the New York Times story points out, regulators have no particularly strong feelings about alerting the public to the origins of the dye, which can be found in pink products by Tropicana, Dannon and Yoplait, among many others.

The lack of warning has doctors concerned because some people are allergic to bug parts. Believe it or not, they aren't bugged by the ick factor, as the FDA already allows for a certain portion of insect parts in your food -- for instance, a 24 oz. jar of tomato sauce is legally allowed to contain around 35 fly eggs).

The Times also pointed out that people who abstain from eating animals for personal or religious reasons might want to be informed that their fruit punch is filled with crushed critters. In the meantime, we'll take our Otter Pops in blue raspberry.