Cochineal : colorful ingredients bug some vegetarians
SEATTLE _ When Starbucks changed its Frappuccino mix a couple years ago, it made sure the new ingredients were dairy-free. But no one said anything about being bug-free.
The cochineal is a scale insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha, from which the crimson-colour dye carmine is derived. A primarily sessile parasite native to tropical and subtropical South America and Mexico, this insect lives on cacti from the genus Opuntia, feeding on plant moisture and nutrients.
The insect produces carminic acid that deters predation by other insects. Carminic acid, which occurs as 17-24% of the weight of the dry insects, can be extracted from the insect’s body and eggs and mixed with aluminum or calcium salts to make carmine dye (also known as cochineal). Carmine is today primarily used as a food colouring and for cosmetics.
The carmine dye was used in Central America in the 15th century for colouring fabrics and became an important export good during the colonial period. After synthetic pigments and dyes such as alizarin were invented in the late 19th century, natural-dye production gradually diminished. Health fears over artificial food additives, however, have renewed the popularity of cochineal dyes, and the increased demand has made cultivation of the insect profitable again, with Peru being the largest exporter. Some towns in the state of Oaxaca (in Mexico) are still working in hand-made textiles.
There are other species in the genus Dactylopius that can be used to produce cochineal extract, but they are extremely difficult to distinguish from D. coccus, even for expert taxonomists, and the latter scientific name (and the vernacular “cochineal insect”) is therefore commonly used when one is actually referring to other biological species. The primary biological distinctions between species are minor differences in host plant preferences, in addition to very different geographic distributions.
Turns out the strawberry sauce used in strawberries-and-cream Frappuccinos contains cochineal extract, which is made from the bodies of ground-up insects indigenous to Latin America.
A vegan barista who works for Starbucks sent a picture of the sauce’s ingredient list to a vegetarian blog called www.ThisDishIsVegetarian.com, which posted it earlier this month. The revelation sparked some criticism from advocacy groups questioning the practice.
“The strawberry base for our Strawberries Creme Frappuccino does contain cochineal extract, a common natural dye that is used in the food industry, and it helps us move away from artificial ingredients,” said spokesman Jim Olson.
The base also is used in Starbucks’ strawberry smoothies, he said, and the insect-derived extract is in some other foods and drinks the chain sells, including its red velvet whoopie pies.
Starbucks is hardly the only one.
Cochineal extract and a similar ingredient called carmine, also made from the insects, are bright red and can be found in fruit juices, gelatins and other foods, as well as many makeup products.
They were used for red dye in Mexico before the Spaniards arrived, and the Italian liqueur Campari originally contained carmine dye.
Tropicana’s website lists carmine as a colorant in its non-refrigerated ruby red grapefruit juice, and Dole lists cochineal extract as an ingredient in some of its fruit-in-gel products.
Three years ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said food and cosmetic products must declare on their labels that they contain cochineal extract or carmine. The rule went into effect in early 2011.
Until then, the insect additives often were listed as “artificial colors” or “color added.”
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, an activist group that pushed the FDA for the new labeling requirement, said the agency should have banned the colorants altogether or at least required that the labels explain that they come from insects.
“All food companies would be well advised to color their foods with real food and not either artificial dyes or an ostensibly natural dye like carmine,” said the center’s spokesman, Jeff Cronin.
In the case of Starbucks’ strawberry Frappuccinos, he said, “I bet real strawberries could be used. Why simulate the color of strawberries when you could probably get a pretty good result with strawberries or beet juice or something that won’t concern your customers?”
Cochineal extract and carmine cause allergic reactions in a small segment of the population, he said, and are off-limits for most Jews who keep kosher and vegans and vegetarians, who do not eat animals.
Joe M. Regenstein, a professor of food science at Cornell University, remembers Ben Jerry’s taking the cochineal-derived color out of its Cherry Garcia ice cream to make it kosher and to make its ingredient label easier to understand.
Cochineal colorants provide “fairly stable color compared to beet and red cabbage juice,” he said. “Basically, (vegetable dyes) bleach. In natural markets, people have gotten used to the fact that colors are not as vibrant as when they used synthetic colors.”
Now Cherry Garcia’s label lists “fruit and vegetable concentrates” for color.
Other red foods that are more specific include Whole Foods’ 365-brand pink lemonade, which includes sweet potato, red radish, cherry and apple extracts and Fuze strawberry guava’s chokeberry and carrot extracts.
Crush orange soda and Minute Maid fruit punch are more old-fashioned. They use red dye No. 40.
(c)2012 The Seattle Times
Spices – at Bill & Sheila’s Cookbook
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