Starbucks to stop using bug extract to color frappuccinos, cakes

Starbucks, The world’s largest coffee-shop chain plans to stop using an extract made of dried insects to color some Frappuccinos and pastries after an online campaign asked for the ingredient to be removed.

Starbucks Corp. said Thursday that, by June, it will phase out use of a red dye derived from cochineal insects, a tropical bug found in Mexico and South America. The colorant will be replaced with lycopene, a tomato extract, said the Seattle-based company.

More than 6,500 people had signed a Charge.org petition asking Starbucks to stop using the insects because it isn’t vegan or kosher, and because consumers “don’t want crushed bugs in their designer drinks.” The petition was started by a South Carolina woman who wanted to inform consumers that the chain’s strawberry drinks weren’t suitable for vegans.

The extract had been used in the company’s Strawberries Creme Frappuccino, strawberry banana smoothie, raspberry swirl cake, birthday cake pop, mini doughnut with pink icing and red velvet whoopee pie, according to the statement from the company.

Cochineal dye is widely used in foods and cosmetics products such as lipstick, yogurt and shampoo.

“We’ve learned that we fell short of your expectations by using natural cochineal extract as a colorant,” said Cliff Burrows, Starbucks president for the United States and the Americas.

— From news service reports

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