You're eating crushed bug juice

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FDA: You're eating crushed bug juice

Cochineal extract, carmine should be listed on labels, officials say

 

Friday, January 27, 2006; Posted: 9:14 p.m. EST (02:14 GMT)

 

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- That ice cream you're eating or the lipstick you're

wearing just might contain extract from crushed bugs. On purpose.

 

And the government thinks you should know.

 

The Food and Drug Administration proposed Friday requiring food and cosmetic

labels to list cochineal extract or carmine if a product's ingredients

include either of the two red colorings that have been extracted from the

ground bodies of an insect known since the time of the Aztecs.

 

Release of the proposed rule came after the FDA received 35 reports of

hypersensitivity to the colorings, the agency said. A 1998 petition by the

Center for Science in the Public Interest asked that the FDA take action.

 

The widespread use of the dyes in everything from yogurt to lipstick hasn't

exactly been well-disclosed: The ingredients typically are listed as "color

added" or "E120," the FDA said.

 

Carmine puts the red in ice cream, strawberry milk, fake crab and lobster,

fruit cocktail cherries, port wine cheese, lumpfish eggs and liqueurs like

Campari, according to the FDA. Carmine is also used in lipstick, makeup

base, eye shadow, eyeliners, nail polishes and baby products, the agency

said. Meanwhile, cochineal extract shows up in fruit drinks, candy, yogurt

and some processed foods.

 

That can upset vegetarians, Jews trying to keep kosher and anyone who might

blanch at learning their blush is made from bugs.

 

Not that the stuff hasn't been around long: Indians living in pre-Columbian

Mexico were the first to recognize a cactus-sucking insect called the

Dactylopius coccus costa was a good source of dye.

 

Now, like then, cochineal extract is made from the dried and ground female

bodies of the insect. Carminic acid gives that extract its dark purplish-red

color. That acid is used in turn to make carmine.

 

The FDA ruled out banning the use of the colorings since it found no

evidence of a "significant hazard" to the general population. It also

declined to require that labels disclose the colorings are made from

insects, as the Center for Science in the Public Interest had asked.

 

"Why not use a word that people can understand?" said center executive

director Michael F. Jacobson. "Sending people scurrying to the dictionary or

to Google to figure out what 'carmine' or 'cochineal' means is just plain

sneaky. Call these colorings what they are: insect-based."

 

The FDA said comments on the proposed rule are due April 27. The FDA plans

to tackle the labeling of prescription drugs that include the colorings in a

separate rule.

 

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.