Beetlejuice: Using Bugs as Food Dye Is Legal and Common

[FormerRepublican]

Oh yeah - now I want to eat breakfast - ew! Yuck!

"Jan. 27, 2006 — "Beetlejuice" is more than just a movie name — foodmakers regularly use crushed female cochineal beetles to dye food, particularly certain yogurts, juices and candy, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

While shocking, it's perfectly legal, the paper reports. Foodmakers don't have to list the bug-based ingredient, because beetles are part of nature. Only man-made dyes, like FD&C Red No. 40, have to be listed.

But that may change soon. The Food and Drug Administration may recommend that companies list beetle additives as "carmine" or "cochineal."

Why? Using beetles in food proves problematic for vegetarians, people who keep kosher and for those with certain food allergies."

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=1549583

What possible reason could the FDA have for not requiring them to disclose this ingredient previously? Could it be - $$$$!? I already question our food supply because of the totally inept way mad cow is being handled, and because of the total failure of corporate self inspections on food handling, and now I find out the government turns a blind eye toward the deliberate inclusion of ground bugs in our food to make things look pretty. Well, isn't that special.

Jeez Louise, it makes me want to grow all my own food.

[SmokingJacket]

1. Read "Fast Food Nation"

Then you'll REALLY want to grow your own food!!

[flamingyouth]

2. Yep. That book was a real eye-opener.

[Mutley]

3. Some things you're better off not knowing.

:puke: :puke: :puke:

[seabeyond]

4. i know. my son gave this conversation to me months ago

a huge thanks to him. just what i wanted to know

[Zookeeper]

5. That should be listed on the label, if it causes health problems...

for some people or bothers folks with diet restrictions. Personally, I don't consider using dye from bugs any worse than artificial coloring. Bugs are a food source in some parts of the world. I'm a lot more worried about mad cow disease and hormones in our meat and poultry.

[FormerRepublican]

8. I think it's a personal preference.

For me, the idea of bugs in my food (cockroaches - ew!) makes me want to hurl. It reminds me of reading stories from the past before they had any food regs when they used to find all kinds of really revolting crap in the public food supply - like rat droppings, rat parts, and even the poison used in the plant to kill the rats (but ended up killing the end consumers instead).

I know some people think it's OK to eat bugs - unfortunately, I'm not one of them and I'd prefer to have a choice.

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. How are you about eating prawns and shrimp?

Is there that much difference between them and insects?

[FormerRepublican]

26. I call them cockroaches of the sea and try not to think too much about it.

At least shrimp don't have that gooey bug stuff inside them.

[TimeChaser]

38. You're not drinking the "gooey bug stuff"

just the wing cases.

[PatGund]

6. *Shrug*

I doubt it's money. It's more that we've got a deep-seated cultural bias against eating insects in this country. Never mind that it's done all over the world, we go "blegh!"

If you find yourself in Santa Monica, CA someday, checkout a restaurant called "Typhoon"

http://www.typhoon-restaurant.com/

They do pan-asian cuisine, and it's supposely quite good. However, their dinner menu has an "Insects" category, along with beef, chicken, pork, seafood, etc. Dishes like:

CRICKETS - Taiwanese stir fried style with raw garlic, chili peppers and asian basil

CHAMBAI ANTS - Manchurian Ants sprinkled on potato strings

WHITE SEA WORMS - Thai style crispy fried on spinach leaf with ginger, chili pepper, peanut, lime with Tamarind dipping sauce

For Halloween, they do an all-insect dinner menu.

Also check out:

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/06/21/Tampabay/The_invasion_of_the_g.shtml

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0416_040416_eatingcicadas_2.html

[zbdent]

7. Gotta give the French credit for one thing (at least)

who would have thought that snails would be edible . . .

[1monster]

9. Yup. Guides in a local museum call it, "Dead Red Bug Squish".

Red bug squish has been used to dye clothing and food for a long time.

Remember the British Red Coats? Those coats took a lot of dead red bug squish to make that pretty red color.

Red M&Ms anyone? :evilgrin:

[Deja Q]

11. I wonder how they make green... grass stains?

Green M&Ms, anyone? :D

[Deja Q]

10. Bugs are better than toxic chemicals.

They're insects.

Will vegetarians be prepared to stop driving, flying in planes, jogging, and walking out of fear of squishing an insect?

[FormerRepublican]

12. Some bugs contain toxic chemicals.

Do we know if the bugs they're using as dye are actually healthy for us to eat?

[ima_sinnic]

13. whatever. shrimp aren't that far removed from "bugs"

in fact, fried mealworms (which are delicious) taste a little like shrimp.

[TheBaldyMan]

14. cochineal is an ancient source of dye, it's not the whole beetle

just the wing cases. People have eaten insects since prehistory and even vegetarians have probably swallowed a few insect plant pests inadvertantly.

[laststeamtrain]

15. Ground up monkey endrino glands act as a brain 'trigger' that...

...makes you think whatever you're eating tastes good. It's used in a lot of foods and it's a 'natural' ingredient.
I think this is interesting because it doesn't make the food actually taste better, it makes you think it tastes better.

[FormerRepublican]

17. Yuck!! I don't want that in my food, either.

I just want to eat the stuff that grows in the ground - not extra added parts from who knows what. If I eat frozen strawberries, does it have bug parts added to make them look pretty? I don't want that, and I'd like to be able to choose!

[laststeamtrain]

21. Listen, I understand. Me too. But what would all the bio-chemists do...

...if there weren't big companies that test all these weird substances for use in 'food'. :sarcasm:

What's strange to me is that I live about 25 minutes from some of the sweetest farm land one could imagine but there's produce from Chile in the local supermarkets.

I don't know if our society will ever get back to 'normal'.

The farms used to be there. And the canning factories. Decently paid truckers. Markets selling the stuff. Everybody making money and spending it.

I guess the thing wrong with that was there wasn't enough surplus for the parasitic investing class.

Don't get me started...:rant:

[1monster]

23. I can go you one better. I live in Florida and there are times when the

only citrus fruits, oranges especially, that can be found are imported from Africa and Australia.

When that happens, I don't buy or I go to another grocery stor where they do have Florida oranges.

[AlienGirl]

24. Oh?

Do you have a source for that?

Tucker

[laststeamtrain]

28. I'm looking and I'm not finding it.

About 10(?) years ago a guy wrote a whistle-blowing book about his time at a food science lab that worked for a bunch of companies; one that began with the syllable Mc.
The guy'd gotten his Masters in Bio-Chem and the only job he could get aside from teaching was at this lab.
It blew his mind and he wrote the book and made the rounds of radio shows, etc. promoting the book. I heard him interviewed a couple of times. I never read the book.
He asserted they were really getting down to the brain trigger level. Actually triggering addictive responses. Eat one and then want another a few hours later.
Sorry if this is flaky. I've done a few searches and can't find the book title or author's name.
I remember him talking about the monkey endrino gland in Big Mcs.
Kinda memorable.
This'll probably stick in my mind and if I come up with the name and title I'll post it.

Best,
LST

[AlienGirl]

29. There are a few reasons I doubt this

First is that monkey glands of any kind would be quite expensive to procure on an industrial scale. Second is that I can't think of any glandular substance that would create an addictive response, and "endrino" is not a gland. Could it have been "adrenal"? Could you be mis-remembering something about a substance in food that causes adrenal-gland activation in monkeys or something?

Tucker

[laststeamtrain]

34. Thanks for your doubt; I am soooo NOT a scientist. I shouldn't have said..

...anything.
Probably adrenal and not endrino. The gist was though that there were naturally occuring substances from monkey glands put into food that triggered brain reactions that made people think the food was good and that they wanted more of the same.
But hey, I could very well have been listening to a quack trying to sell a book. Well I was, but he might have been fudging the science.
It was mainstream radio, but what does that mean anymore?
I'll stop telling the story.
Thanks for the doubt. Doubt's good.

Best,
LST

[Zookeeper]

35. Do you know what that's called (besides "natural flavoring")?

And do you know what products it's used in?

On edit: Oops! I posted before I finished reading the thread.

[Orangepeel]

16. They should list it of course. but there are worse things to use

it's probably better for you than the alternative

[FormerRepublican]

18. Do we know that for a fact?

For example, castor beans and nightshade are all natural plant products, but I wouldn't want anyone putting them in my food!

[Orangepeel]

19. no. I don't know that for a fact.

I'm making what I think is the reasonable assumption that a natural additive that has been used for thousand of years is less harmful than a modern day chemical.

But yes, I could be wrong.

[FormerRepublican]

20. Lead was used for thousands of years for everything from cosmetics...

to water pipes. Until scientists found out what lead did to the human body, especially in children.

Early copper smelters poisoned themselves smelting copper (was it with Arsenic - I forget).

Seamen used to die on long voyages and kids grew up with bow legs from rickets because no one knew that Vitamin C was essential to health.

I could dig up thousands of examples of this kind of thing from history. Thousands of years of human usage doesn't tell me anything about safety.

[Orangepeel]

22. As I said, I don't know it for a fact.

But natural versus chemical? I believe the odds favor the natural and I've got better things to worry about.

[UncleSepp]

27. Where do you suppose chemicals come from?

The distillation of grain alcohol from fermented sugars and starches is the extraction of a chemical from a natural substance. Chemicals are nothing more than the stuff other stuff is made of.

[Nikia]

30. Everything used in food is tested for safety

If people have been using this coloring for a long time, I would trust it more than newer chemicals, which although have been tested, might not reveal their true long term effects. For the same reason, I am more nervous about using newer pharmecuticals compared to ones that people have been using for decades.
It is probably good to list everything though because some people do have less common allergies and sensitivites.

[FormerRepublican]

33. I don't trust government testing.

I prefer not to have additives.

WRT drug testing, I've reached the same conclusion you have. If I ever get a new prescription, I will inform the doctor that I will not take anything that's newer than 5 years old. Too much corporate $$$ corrupting the FDA.

[pinniped]

31. Like there's something wrong with beet juice.

Some yogurts use beet juice, the others resort to beetle juice.

[Generic Other]

32. Now thjat's just gross

And should be clearly labeled beetlejuice whenever it's used. Gack.

[TimeChaser]

36. Eh, I've known about this for years

Nothing new, really.

[Taxloss]

37. I don't see the problem.

Many world cuisines include insects. I've tried a few, like roast cricket and honey ant, and they are quite tasty. And they're a lot better for you than Twinkies or corn dogs.