Bugs in your yoplait yogurt

[Guest guest]

Very interesting article I thought I'd share....Kim S

 

 

http://money.aol

com/bw/general/canvas3/_a/whats-in-my-food/20060808141909990001

 

http://www.businessweek

com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/aug2006/db20060807_789872.htm

 

 

Few people know that the food coloring listed as cochineal extract comes

from female beetles. Food activists want to spread the word.

 

 

 

Beetle Mania

If you like Yoplait strawberry yogurt, Tropicana grapefruit,

orange-strawberry juice, or Hershey's Good & Plenty candies, chances are you

will be sucking on the red coloring extracted from the female cochineal

beetle and her eggs. These insects live on cactus plants in Peru and the

Canary Islands.

 

According to the best-selling book by Eric Schlosser, Chew on This, the

female bug feeds on cactus pads, and color from the cactus gathers in her

body. The bugs are collected, dried, and ground into a coloring additive. It

takes 70,000 of the insects to make a pound of carmine dye, as it is known.

The Food & Drug Administration doesn't require that this cochineal be

identified in the ingredients. Manufacturers simply identify it as an

artificial color. "

 

When you dig into a strawberry Yoplait yogurt, take a moment to contemplate

where the beautiful pink color comes from. Strawberries? Think again. It

comes from crushed bugs. Specifically, from the female cochineal beetles and

their eggs. And it's not just yogurt. The bugs are also used to give red

coloring to Hershey Good & Plenty candies, Tropicana grapefruit juice, and

other common foods.

 

You won't find " crushed bugs " on the list of ingredients for any of these

foods, however. Companies have a bit of latitude in describing exactly what

they put in our food. Many larger companies, such as General Mills, the

manufacturer of Yoplait and Pepsi, the maker of Tropicana, identify the dye

in their products as either carmine, or cochineal extract. Still, many

companies simply list " artificial color " on their ingredients list without

giving any details

 

Food activists are trying to change disclosure requirements. The Food & Drug

Administration has received numerous complaints over the issue and is now in

the process of considering a proposal to require color additives like the

cochineal extract to be disclosed on the labels of all foods that use them.

Hopefully we'll see something by the end of the year, " says Michael Jacobson

executive director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a food

advocacy group in Washington, D. C.

 

ALLERGIC REACTIONS. Jacobson says that consumers want to know what they're

eating. Some are allergic to bug extract; others are vegetarians. " The food

product should indicate that it comes from insects so that vegetarians at

least can avoid the product, " he says.

 

Carmine may be the least of food activists' worries. It is known to cause

allergic reactions in just a small percentage of the population. Food

producers sometimes add much more dangerous chemical additives to make their

products look attractive (see BusinessWeek.com, 3/27/06, " Hershey: A Sweeter

Bid " ).

 

Indeed, who would think that chicken, eggs, and salmon are often

artificially enhanced to look more appetizing to consumers? The plump, juicy

chicken sitting on the supermarket shelf is likely to have been fed

canthaxanthin, a pigment added to chicken feed to enhance poultry's yellow

color and make it look palatable. And egg-laying hens are also given a dye

along with their feed, making egg yolks vary in color from light yellow all

the way to bright orange.

 

IN THE PINK. Farmers can have their pick from a color chart that goes from

the numbers 1 to 15, coinciding with colors from yellow to red. The yellow

color comes from xanthophyll and carotenoids in the feed absorbed through

the intestine, metabolized, and deposited in the egg yolk. In an article

published last year, R. Scott Beyer, a poultry specialist from the Kansas

State University, recommended different levels of xanthophylls, depending on

what color of yolk is desired. He says 23 mg of xanthophyll per pound of

feed results in a " medium orange " color.

 

The fresh, farm-raised salmon that shoppers buy also get their orange-red

hue from eating the chemicals astaxanthin and canthaxanthin. Wild salmon are

pink because they eat shrimp-like creatures called krill. But to achieve the

same pink color, farmed salmon need chemicals, which are mixed with their

feed. In the past couple of years, the European Union significantly reduced

the level of such dyes that can be fed to salmon because of concerns that

the dyes, at high levels, can affect people's eyesight.

 

Two years ago, in the U.S., Seattle law firm Smith & Lowney filed two class

actions against grocers Kroger and Safeway in Washington and California,

contending that they should disclose that their salmon are dyed pink. Both

lawsuits got thrown out of court. However, Knoll Lowney, a partner at the

law firm, says that the lawsuits raised enough public awareness that many

grocers voluntarily use " color added " labels to their salmon.

 

Still, Lowney says that such dyes are totally unnecessary. " This is a

growing problem because the food companies are using more artificial means

to enhance the appearance of the product and make it appear like something

that it is not, " he says. A walk down the grocery aisle for processed food

is an eye opener—the bacon and ham get their red tint from sodium ascorbate,

an antioxidant and color stabilizer, and the Betty Crocker icing gets its

bright white color not from natural cream and egg whites but from titanium

dioxide, a mineral that is also used in house paints. Betty Crocker

manufacturer General Mills didn't return phone calls seeking comment.

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

--All I can say is WOW, and thank you. Over the past three years I

have started eating three meals a week of salmon. Everything from

salmon salad to baked. I was sure I was helping myself be of better

health, but now with this new knowledge I'm not so sure. I will

definitly be looking closer at labels and signs in the seafood case

from now on. Again thank you for the info.

[Guest guest]

Can anyone tell me if a cochran beetle is a COCKROACH?