As it turns out, there really may be a bug in your soup.
The Food and Drug Administration has finalized a rule that will require food companies to list cochineal extract and carmine on the label when they are used in food and cosmetics. But the new rule contains one glaring omission. It doesn’t require companies to tell you that the ingredients come from a bug.
Cochineal extract and carmine, used to dye food, drinks and cosmetics various shades of red, orange, pink and purple, are extracted from the dried bodies of the female cochineal bug. (Here’s an interesting image of the dye from a crushed insect.)
The F.D.A. typically doesn’t require color additives to be named on food labels. For years, the bug extracts “have been hidden under the terms ‘artificial colors’ or ‘color added,’ ” according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The group says the extracts are commonly used in reddish-colored foods and beverages, including fruit drinks, ice creams, yogurts and candies.
However, the F.D.A. required the ingredients be listed after University of Michigan allergist Dr. James L. Baldwin reported that some of his patients suffered severe allergic reactions to the bug extracts. After C.S.P.I. petitioned the F.D.A. in 1998, the group also received several dozen adverse-reaction reports from consumers.
In a statement, the group criticized the ruling, noting that labels should make it clear that the extracts come from bugs. They argue that people with allergies who want to avoid the foods for health reasons are well aware of what the ingredients are made from. But vegetarians and people of certain religious faiths who would typically avoid a bug-based product may not be aware of the origins of the extracts without more disclosure on the food label.
But the F.D.A. said that the labeling rule that requires companies to just list the name of the ingredient and nothing else gives “adequate information” to consumers who want to avoid the bug-based colorants for religious or dietary reasons. The new rule will take effect in 2011.
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From 1 to 25 of 93 Comments
Guess what? There are rat hairs and rat feces in almost very packaged food we buy anyway. This is perfectly legal. The only FDA restriction is how much is allowed.
So who cares about a few bug extracts?
— jackPLEASE - the insects in question are scale insects
(Sternorryncha: Dactylopiidae) - they are not ‘bugs’ (Hemiptera), although they are somewhat related to them.
FROM TPP –According to this University of Georgia website they are of the order Hemiptera, but Wikipedia agrees with you that the suborder is Sternorryncha.
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Family: Dactylopiidae
Genus: Dactylopius
Species: D. coccus
Does this mean it’s a bug? I think most of us would see this creature and think, “Oh, there’s a bug.”
— EZscienceMany societies each insects; but they choose this food source. The FDA should indicate the type of insect that is being used in food so that the public can choose or not choose to eat certain foods containing insects. I believe the FDA is misleading the public because it is being pressured to do so by the food manufacturers.
— FoxwillyR bugs OK with vegetarians?
— b eaterHonestly, I think there are a lot more important problems for FDA to worry about, such as how to reduce risk of E. coli and Salmonella and a number of other pathogens and toxins in our food.
Unless there is a budget surplus, this seems like a waste of our tax dollars to worry about.
— Shana“The Manufacture of Non-Bleeding Maraschino Cherries” (Monstrosities, 2008)
I invite everyone who may be interested bug-based dyes to download the book and read it for free. The short story will also be featured in the upcoming issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly.
Thanks for the great article!
— JillianThanks FDA!
You worthless sons of …
— JaneWe also don’t label which ingredients come from algae… so? Cochineal has been used for centuries, dating back to the Aztecs and Mayans. It’s non-carcinogenic and non-toxic. A perfectly natural ingredient with a long history of use, there’s no reason to invoke the “ick” factor of telling people they’re eating a compound which happens to be extracted from bugs, which would push them to prefer synthetics.
If it’s an allergen it should be labeled by name.
As for vegetarians, is the tiny number of domestically raised scale insects killed for cochineal even remotely comparable to the number of pest insects killed to protect your salad? I think not.
— JDDon’t buy anything with added colour etc. Added colour, added sugar, etc. are to disguise low-quality ingredients. Avoid processed food as much as possible. Buy fresh fruit and vegetables. Trying to follow a vegan diet myself, I soon discovered this is the only way. Even the “kosher
certification is no guarantee, because kosher law allows as parve (neither meat nor dairy) some substances not OK for vegans.
That said, you will inevitably consume eat some bug parts, etc. anyway. There is an old saying that everyone eats “a peck of dirt.” It won’t hurt a normally healthy person.
BTW, the use of insect parts for colour (e.g., in lipstick) was no secret and never has been. When I first swore off animal products more than 30 years ago, I had to acquaint myself with the chemical names and sources of all kinds of ingredients not only in food products but in cosmetics and personal care products.
— ACWIngredients should be listed on the label, especially If people are allergic to a specific ingredient. However, why does it matter that something originally came from a bug? People who care about vegan or kosher requirements already have to be very careful and memorize a long list of ingredients that are animal-derived; this is just one more.
— synapseIt’s completely reasonable to require companies to list exactly what ingredients they put in prepared food. Frankly, it’s ridiculous that cochineal and carmine currently hide behind general terms like “color added.”
It’s completely UNreasonable, however, to expect companies to give a detailed explanation of the origin of each of their ingredients (I’m imagining an asterisk in the ingredient list and a footnote a la the phenylalanine warning on diet sodas: “entomophobics: contains bug guts”). Cochineal and carmine are well-known and time-honored ingredients and naming them in the ingredient list should be sufficient. It’s not a “glaring omission” that the FDA hasn’t mandated additional “WARNING!!! BUGS!!!” labeling - it’s just common sense.
Those who avoid eating bugs for religious reasons (e.g. observant Jews) are already well aware that cochineal and carmine are made from insects. (Requiring that these and similar ingredients be clearly identified on labels will help them avoid these foods, although when it comes to prepared foods, observant Jews typically rely on kosher certification anyway).
And as for allergic reactions: while it’s certainly possible that a few are allergic to these ingredients, that has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that they derive from bugs. Almost every food, animal or vegetable, triggers allergies in at least some part of the population. If you discover that you’re allergic to cochineal, the new labeling requirement will help you avoid it. But a bug warning would not have helped you predict your allergy.
Those who want to avoid bugs merely because of the “ewww!” factor would do well to learn the names of these ingredients so that they can stay away from them. (You might also want to look into the federal permitted standards for stray bug parts in packaged foods; you’re probably consuming more insect material than you think, anyway…)
— kiscicaSo why do we have to wait until 2011? It doesn’t seem like it would be that hard to require it sooner.
FROM TPP — That’s a pretty typical time frame. It does take time for food companies to redo labels. Remember the trans fat labeling change. Companies were given an extended period of time to comply with that rule. Some companies will opt to change ingredients rather than disclose an ingredient on the label. Others just need to design new labels.
— Hope:You may add this to the many things I don’t know, or that I know but wish I didn’t. I think people should know what they are eating but the labels will soon outweigh the product. Folllowint the holiday tradition (we had a roast of roach) I soon will outweigh the labels, the products and some small vehicles. I think the best solution is to eat only the things where I fully comprehend the ingredients and their implications. That will probably limit my diet tt an occasional lick of salt. How biblical.
— jsbBack in the 60s, living in California, I ran a large garden and 200 chickens. The birds were allowed into the garden not only because they ate many of the weeds (yes!) but also because they ate the bugs (yes and yes again!0.
Now would that make the (absolutely terrific) eggs they produced bug-infested?
— Albert LewisDannon’s Activia (some varieties, not all) contains carrmine for color, and it may be extremely offensive, particularly for children and adults with digestive disorders. I discuss this abomination and its implications for digestive health here:
http://www.gutsense.org/gutsense/flora.html#Activia
Konstantin Monastyrsky, author of GutSense.org blog.
— Konstantin MonastyrskyWhat about L-cysteine the food additive that is hydrolyzed from human hair? Does eating that make one a cannibal?
— annaThe allergy thing is getting harder and harder to relate to.
It’s becoming a Judith Warner problem. Like when she almost choked on her navel lint.
Lichens, animal hair, larval excrescences - soon you have a nice silk and wool jacket. Edible too.
More people get sick from taking statins than eating peanuts. I made that up. But it’s true.
— marcel duchampThe little legs are kinda crunchy but I don’t like how they stick in your throat sideways. More protein, my babies!
— StarAs a vegetarian, I avoid all foods with artificial flavors and colors — and most “natural” flavors as well. Seems to me that the more processed as food is in our modern world, the more likely it is to contain animal byproducts.
— AlexAt what point does this sort of thing become New Age neurosis, and not anything worthy of discussion? The amount of such compounds in foodstuff must be almost infinitesimally small compared to the food itself. Therefore, its effects would unmeasurable.
Humans have eaten bugs since the dawn of time. Genetically, 99% of humans should be able to process such material without problems.
Another tempest in the vegetarian teapot. When the mind is inserted into the digestion process, all sorts of nonsense gets introduced, but is not excreted as it should be.
— Rob L, N Myrtle Beach, SCSo why not have warning labels on all prepared and packaged food, like those on cigarette packages?
Warning: This processed food item is a food symbol only. Whatever nutritional value the ingredients may have had have been processed out. Sugar, fat, salt, preservatives and natural insect color have been added so that you’ll eat it.
— JennaThis is important news?
How many more issues can I think of - environmental, scientific - that are more pressing to the matters of our health, freedom, prosperity, than the matter of labeling what is a “bug” or not in our food?
Frivolous journalism!
— MitchellYummers!
— ChowhoundIn the products in question, cochineal extract is probably the most natural ingredient. :-)
— JohnJCome on folks. We need the name of the ingredient on the label. “Artificial Color” doesn’t cut it—not for people who are allergic to the ingredient, not for people whose religion prohibits eating certain things, not for vegetarians.
For those of you who argue that people have been using cochineal extract for a long time, this is only partially accurate. It was used as dye for fabric. Only in the twentieth century has it been used as coloring for food. It is, like all technologically produced food products, a new and nearly experimental substance. It is allowed in food in the United States, but heavily regulated in Europe where its use is discouraged. It produces anaphylactic shock in sensitive individuals—this is not an itch, but a trip in an ambulance to the nearest emergency room.
Consider this: if a substance is thoroughly tested, safe, and wholesome, why wouldn’t the manufacturer want it listed on the label?
— Disa Marnesdottr