Thursday, February 26, 2009

Gross fact of the day.

So I read an article on MSN.com about common food additives. The first delight was about strawberry yogurt. Come on, don't ruin yogurt for me. But ruin it they did. Apparently, when you have something that's nice and pink, like, say cranberry juice or strawberry yogurt, they get often get that scrumptious color by adding ground up bugs. Oh yes. You heard me. But it gets worse, if that's possible. The Dactylopius coccus costa bug from Peru likes to eat red berries. A lot. And where does all that color from the red berries go? Into the stomach & larvae in the female bug, of course. And what better way to make your food look deliciously appetizing than to crunch a bunch of those suckers up and put them in your favorite foods. Delish, no?

For those of you who are worried, the FDA is soon requiring manufacturers to label their packaging to let consumers know if they have six-legged creatures in their cuisine. This particular variety is called "Carmine" or "cochineal extract." Sounds innocent, doesn't it? Well, I checked out our container of HEB Strawberry yogurt before making the kids their smoothie today, and guess what?
Do you see it in the corner there? Carmine. AKA bug guts & larvae. Yum.


And being the good mom that I am, I paused before pouring half a container in the blender. How can I in good conscience feed my children squished bugs? I gave a little laugh, and kept pouring.

3 comments:

Olivia said...

That is is yucky! But what do you do? One must eat things that are red. Extra protein...now I can tell people what another source of protein is in my diet. hehe

Jessy, Greg, Grace, Jack, Nora, and Lexi said...

Ew!!! Thanks for the heads up. I got the HEB brand awhile back since it was cheaper, but I am definately going to read the ingredients from now on. I have a friend that makes their own yogurt. I'm thinking that's probably the safest way to go so you know exactly what's in it!!

The Family said...

A little bugs won't hurt the kiddo's every now and then. I have seen my boys put worse in their mouth on their own =)