The food colorant is also called cochineal extract, which comes from the insect species Dactylopius coccus Costa. These cochineal bugs used to harvest carmine are mainly harvested in Peru and the Canary Islands, where the insects live on prickly pear cacti.
Carmine uses date back to the s, when the Aztecs used these insects to dye fabrics. The main purpose is to make packaged foods appear more vibrant. So you may wonder: Is it really necessary to kill thousands and thousands of insects just so our foods appear more red? Carmine is made by crushing the female cochineal insect. The insects are harvested, sun-dried and crushed. They are then put into an acidic solution that produces carminic acid. This creates a very bright red dye that can be altered with the use of borax or other solutions.
This is one of the oldest human uses of an insect for natural dye. There are reports that it takes about 70, insects to produce just one pound of dye, and we know that even after the colorant is combined with solutions, insect proteins are still present in the dyed foods or body products.
Carmine may cause severe allergic reactions, which is why it needs to be labeled specifically as carmine or cochineal extract on ingredient labels. Research shows that carmine can cause allergic reactions through direct contact, inhalation and digestion.
UK-based Premier Foods, which owns brands including Mr Kipling cakes and Bachelor soups, continues to use carmine, but does consider switching to alternative colourings. Animal rights group Peta would ideally like the use of carmine to be phased out all together. One company that in recent years has moved away from carmine is US coffee shop giant Starbucks.
Back in customers complained after it was revealed that Starbucks used carmine in some of its iced coffees, smoothies and cakes.
Starbucks responded by saying it would switch from carmine to lycopene, a natural, tomato-based extract. Other natural food colouring alternatives include extracts from berries and beetroot. Yet none are as long-lasting and easy to use as carmine. For example, betanin, the food colouring obtained from beetroots, degrades when exposed to light, heat and oxygen. It therefore typically only used in foodstuffs that have a short shelf life, or are frozen. Ms Butler Greenfield says it is important to remember that carmine is a natural product that it is a vital source of income for poor farmers in Peru.
Today, cochineals are harvested mainly in Peru and the Canary Islands on plantations of prickly pear cacti, the bugs' preferred host. There, the insects are sun-dried, crushed, and dunked in an acidic alcohol solution to produce carminic acid, the pigment that eventually becomes carmine or cochineal extract, depending on processing.
About 70, insects are needed to produce a pound of dye. Until , cochineal was one of many dyes that fell under the umbrella term "natural color" on ingredients lists. This dye is used as an additive in foods, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. It is probably the dye with best technological characteristics among natural ones.
It gives to the foods to which is applied a very nice red color, being used in canned vegetables and marmalades, ice creams, meat and dairy products, such as yogurt and fresh cheese and both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. For more information about these and other colorants please contact us at the following link. Write your Lastname.
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