The USA is getting petroleum-based dyes out of food. Great. So what are some companies considering replacing them with? Crushed insects.
Yes, really.
The US Food and Drug Administration is pushing food manufacturers away from petroleum-based synthetic dyes. Red 3 is being removed entirely, with manufacturers required to comply by 2027, while companies are also voluntarily reformulating products containing other synthetic colours.
Getting unnecessary artificial dyes out of food sounds like progress. Replacing them with tens of thousands of dead animals does not.
Your Red Sweets Could Be Full of Insects
Carmine is a bright red pigment made from female cochineal insects. They live on prickly pear cacti, particularly in Peru, and are collected before being killed and dried. Depending on the method, they may be killed using heat, hot water or drying before their bodies are crushed to extract the red pigment. And we are not talking about a handful of insects.
Around 150,000 insects for one kilogram of dried cochineal material. All because somebody wanted a sweet to be pink.
Carmine isn’t new. You may already find it in food, drinks and cosmetics, sometimes listed as carmine, cochineal extract, Natural Red 4, CI 75470 or E120.
And calling it “natural” doesn’t magically make the process desirable.
Nobody Is Asking for This
This is perhaps the strangest part.
Consumers aren’t demanding insect-coloured sweets. Parents aren’t celebrating the removal of synthetic dyes and thinking, “Brilliant, but could you grind up a few thousand animals instead?” Carmine appeals to manufacturers because it produces strong reds and pinks and performs well under conditions such as heat. But convenience for food manufacturers is not a moral argument. Especially when there are alternatives.
Beetroot, black carrot, purple sweet potato, paprika, lycopene and other plant-derived pigments can all produce reds and pinks without deliberately killing animals for decoration. Several major manufacturers have already demonstrated that reformulation without carmine is possible.
So this isn’t synthetic dye versus insects.
It’s a choice.
Emerging research increasingly gives us reason to take insect pain seriously. When billions of individuals could potentially be affected, “we aren’t completely certain they suffer” is hardly a compelling justification for killing them unnecessarily. Food companies have an opportunity right now to make the obvious choice.
Replace artificial colours if you want.
Just don’t replace them with animals.
Originally reported in Faunalytics.