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A Note From the FDA: There Are Beetles in Your Juice

January 07, 2009 11:33 AM

By KIRK FERNANDES, ABC News Medical Unit

So, you know all those ground-up bugs you’ve been drinking and eating? Ooh … awkward moment. You didn’t know you were gulping down ground-up bugs, did you?

Well, it turns out that one of the best ways to make a “natural” red food coloring is to crush the dried bodies of the female Dactylopius coccus -- a cactus-eating insect from the Americas.

The resulting scarlet hue brightens some of our popular juices, candies, yogurts and ice creams. And the same coloring can be used in makeup including lipstick.

Earlier this week the Food and Drug Administration issued a rule requiring manufacturers using the dye -- known as carmine, or cochineal extract -- to label it as such in foods and cosmetics.

But not because of the gross factor. Instead, the FDA is doing so to help prevent dangerous anaphylactic reactions in people who are allergic to the insects and are unknowingly ingesting and/or rubbing the colorful bug powder on their faces.

The labeling of "these color additives in all foods and cosmetics is necessary to ensure their safe use," stated the FDA report issued Monday.

The new requirement was, in part, a response to a citizen petition about the allergic reactions, first launched in 1998 by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, according to the FDA report. But the final rule doesn’t go as far as the center had wanted: an overall ban of the ingredient or a required label to explain that carmine is "insect-derived."

"We wanted people to know that it comes from an insect," said Michael Jacobson, the center's executive director. "Vegetarians, Jews, anybody else who has concerns about eating animal products should know that."

It should be noted that cochineal allergies appear to be rare. The FDA collected 14 reports of adverse reactions during a 10-year period. And the agency is not considering it a "major food allergen" like other foods such as shellfish and tree nuts, which are covered by the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004.

A quick scan of the medical literature turned up a few reports of people with occupational asthma linked to carmine, including two workers at a carmine factory and two butchers who used the coloring in their sausages (both in Spain).

Manufacturers don’t have to start adding the “carmine” or “cochineal extract” labels until 2011, but you can find many products from familiar brands that are already noting the special ingredient.

Image of D. coccus cortesy of Peter J. Bryant, University of California, Irvine.

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January 7, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (53)

Jett Travolta’s Death: Beyond the Media Coverage

January 07, 2009 10:01 AM

By DAN CHILDS, ABC News Medical Unit

At 2 p.m. Tuesday, a Google search revealed 5,971 results for news stories featuring the term “Travolta.” This was little surprise, considering the intense news media spotlight on the death of 16-year-old Jett Travolta in the Bahamas Friday.

Since the news was announced, the ABC News Medical Unit has spoken to experts in a variety of medical specialties for comments on what could have caused the boy’s death.

We heard back from several of these experts, but one response that stood out was from Dr. Nancy Minshew, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Pittsburgh. While we initially expected that Minshew’s expertise in the area of autism research would be a boon to our reporting, it was her experience as a parent who had lost a child that resonated with us.

Here are excepts from Minshew’s message, reprinted here with her permission:

“I don’t know what anyone can say about this death, except that it is every parent's worst nightmare and it is just the beginning. Who cares what caused it?

“The phone call from out of nowhere -- the police or the hospital call to ask: ‘Are you the parents of...’ It happens suddenly. It happened to me. My son died in a car wreck six years ago, and I got a call at 4 a.m. You suddenly become a member of a not-so-small club you can never resign from, and that will grieve you until you die. It will cause you to question your most fundamental beliefs.

“I would like to say these parents will feel better soon, but they won’t. Maybe in two years or three they will feel better, but not this year or next year. And not before they question every thing they did or did not do. ... Every invasion of their privacy with speculation about cause will cause pain. Empathy would help. That is all I can say about that.”

What do you think?

January 7, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (19)