ABC Health Insider
The ABC News Medical Unit takes a critical look at the popular medical news of the day.
The Medical Unit is responsible for making recommendations to ABC News programs about coverage of medical stories, writing a daily "Medical Minute" that is sent to ABC-affiliated stations, producing a daily health program on ABC News Now, and overseeing the Health page of ABCNews.com.
RECENT POSTS
- How Can the Flu Kill You?
- Facing America's Doctor Disparity
- No End in Sight for Peanut Product Recalls
- Dr. Tim: Inside the White House Forum on Health Care
- Health Policy Experts Mull Impact of Wyeth Ruling
- Health Coverage for All -- Is It on the Way?
- This Is Your Brain on Envy
- Is a Virus Making You Obese? Fat Chance
- Video Gamers May Be 'Virtually' on Their Own
- Think Birth Control Pills Are Dangerous? Try Pregnancy
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 |
« Previous | Main | Next »
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.
-----
Got allergy? Get answers from dozens of experts at the ABCNews.com OnCall+ Allergy center.
January 7, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (53)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
ignorance is bliss
Posted by: Daryl | Jan 7, 2009 2:55:21 PM
Whaaaat?! This is so inhumane to the poor little insects that want nothing more than a chance at life!
We need to organize a protest. Big Color can't get by with pulverizing beetles or their repression of females (note that only female beetles are used). They're misogynistic and probably make their daughters wear burkas.
Down with Big Color!
Posted by: Jason | Jan 7, 2009 2:58:48 PM
one word: HOTDOGS
Posted by: corinne2009 | Jan 7, 2009 3:04:33 PM
Shopping for and eating only pure foods is time-consuming, difficult, and expensive. If you live near a good source of organic foods, you're fortunate. Many of us have only a large chain grocery to go to. I know vegetarians who have quit eating dried figs because they have heard they contain insects. We need even more information on food labels than we're getting now, although progress so far has been welcome.
Posted by: castelyn | Jan 7, 2009 3:06:13 PM
To those of you asking for a citation for examples of people falling into meat grinders: read Fast-Food Nation. There are several examples in that book.
Posted by: Amanda | Jan 7, 2009 3:09:06 PM
It's amazing that people can eat a cow and then choke on a bug. LOL
Posted by: Moose | Jan 7, 2009 3:33:59 PM
I thought that people being ground up in meat grinders stopped after The Jungle was written. It USED to happen, but the government is much more strict when it comes to the conduct of these places (even if that DOES mean that only humans aren't making it into our food).
I'll believe that we're eating feces and small rodents (not that I'm happy about it), but I refuse to believe that kind of stuff happens anymore. (In the United States anyway...that's where The Jungle was written and the president of the time decided to do something about it.)
Posted by: T | Jan 7, 2009 3:55:24 PM
I agree with you Moose. What is so bad about eating bugs? We think nothing of eating cow parts, chicken parts, pig parts, fish parts, etc. What is the big deal about bugs?
Posted by: Jim | Jan 7, 2009 3:56:03 PM
I prefer bug parts to the artificial petroleum-derived colorings so prevalent in foods. My son is sensitive to them and becomes hyper for hours after eating anything containing Red #40, Yellow #5 or Blue #1.
Posted by: 1bluestocking | Jan 7, 2009 4:05:49 PM
Lobsters and Crabs are Big Bugs..
Posted by: Dave V | Jan 7, 2009 4:06:06 PM
GROSS!! I am a vegetarian. I have a right to know what I am eating, as does everyone.
Posted by: ScorpRedhead | Jan 7, 2009 4:09:12 PM
I wonder which beetle was put into my juice.....John, Paul, George or Ringo. Perhaps all four. :))
Posted by: Lisa S. | Jan 7, 2009 4:23:19 PM
Actually, I know of an instance when I guy was near a meat grinding line and accidently got pulled in. They throw out the meat. It does not make it to the human food chain. If you have an allergy, I can understand getting the willies about the bugs, but I would rather my red dye come from little ground up bugs (protein) than man-made chemicals.
Posted by: Catherine | Jan 7, 2009 4:23:46 PM
I would not want to eat bugs, rodents or anything else under any circumstance. I want to know what I am eating and what is in my food, so please let me make the choice as to what I eat and do not take that right from me. a description of all ingredients should be placed on all food labels.
Posted by: Lana | Jan 7, 2009 4:26:24 PM
My sister is one of the people allergic to the darned things. It makes her violently ill. No wimpy cocktails for her. No sir, vodka on the rocks please.
Posted by: Teresa | Jan 7, 2009 4:30:14 PM
ScorpRedhead: I try to avoid meat, etc. as much as possible, but you must realize, that there are bugs everywhere, yup, even in that head of lettuce and the whole-wheat flour you use in your baking. You eat microscopic bugs and sometimes not so microscopic bugs all the time.
Posted by: Catherine | Jan 7, 2009 4:32:35 PM
This is not news! Common knowledge.
Remember as a kid you drank 'bug juice.' You knew all along and didn't even realize.
Posted by: Steakers | Jan 7, 2009 4:43:03 PM
This would also be considered "Natural" and "Organic" we should be paying more for these red bugs in our food.
Posted by: Paul | Jan 7, 2009 4:45:34 PM
Well, this really made my day. I drink a lot of cranberry juice, so I now have to assume that its color is partly beetle-derived. Ah, well. I'm obviously not allergic to the stuff. I can live with it.
Cochineal was used as a cosmetic for centuries. It never occurred to me that it came from insects. I thought it was a plant or mineral substance.
Posted by: Eleonora27 | Jan 7, 2009 4:47:38 PM
As kids, we used to call the red Kool-Aid "bug juice." I suppose we were wise beyond our years.
Posted by: ChildhoodJuice | Jan 7, 2009 5:01:59 PM
Post a comment
