Bugs-article on what is in the food that you eat

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Vegetarians and Vegans, beware the food coloring additive cochineal

extract.

 

What's in My Food?

 

By Pallavi Gogoi

 

 

 

Few people know that the food coloring listed as cochineal extract

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

 

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.

 

 

 

What Companies Do to Improve the Look & Taste of Your Food

 

 

 

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.

 

Click here for the slide show.

 

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