Ground-Up Beetles Found In Yogurt

Consumers like to buy food that looks good. Many people think colorful food conveys an image of fresh and healthy.

Bright red juice and pink yogurt appeal to the eye, but once you find out how some foods get that vibrant color, you may not find it so appealing.

Creepy, crawly insects-- they're all around us, even in places we would least expect.

It may seem unbelievable, but crushed cochineal beetles are used as food coloring in many products.

The ingredient was found in Yoplait yogurt and Good and Plenty candy.

It was also found in several different lipsticks.

The coloring comes from cochineal bugs that grow on cacti.

To make the dye, the bugs are heated, dried and crushed into a powder. That powder is then used to color food.

Cochineal bugs have been used for centuries as a dye.

But consumers won't find cochineal bugs listed on any ingredient label.

If it is listed on ingredient labels, it is often called "carmine,” or natural color or color added.

The Food and Drug Administration is now considering new labeling that would require the words "vivid red carmine" or "bright-orange cochineal" to be listed on labels.

Some people think even that kind of labeling doesn't tell consumers enough.

Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said, "If it's on the food labels, it should say carmine derived from insects that would let people know the source of the color."

The red insect dye can be dangerous for some people.

Arlene Roth never heard of carmine until, she said, she had an allergic reaction. “I ate some yogurt. Within15 minutes I started feeling queasy. I had hives from head to toe."

Arlene's doctor, Dina Meyers, immediately suspected an allergic reaction, and she suspected carmine, she said.

Many doctors are unaware carmine can cause allergic reactions, but just by chance, Dr. Meyers’ daughter had had a similar reaction after eating the same yogurt.

After doing some research, she suspected carmine was the culprit, but it took some time to confirm that.

Meyers said, "It wasn't until a year later when she developed a severe second allergic reaction to another product containing carmine that we could conclude our suspicions to be true."

The number of people known to be allergic to the insect-derived coloring is small.

The FDA knows of only 11 cases of allergic reactions to carmine since 1994.

But carmine isn't just in food.

WPXI found it in several different lipsticks, but even when it is on the label, consumer has to look closely because it is usually in very small print.

Arlene Roth had a severe allergic reaction after using a new eye shadow. When she looked at the ingredients on the product she saw carmine listed in very tiny print.

Watch Channel 11 News tonight for Becky Thompson's full report.

More Info:Wikipedia.orgwww.cfsan.fda.govwww.cspinet.org