French families have been horrified to learn that the red food dye used in popular treats such as children's ice lollies is often made from crushed insects, reports The Telegraph.
Foodwatch, a consumer rights group, pointed out that a widely used red food colouring, carmine, is made from ground-up bugs, as part of a campaign for labels to provide fuller information about ingredients.
The insects used are called cochineal. Native to tropical and subtropical parts of South, Central and North America, they live on cacti.
Connoisseurs have long known the colouring comes from squashed bugs, but the news has come as a shock to many French consumers.
Paul Leblanc, 35, was visibly shocked when told that the ice lollies he was buying for his seven-year-old son at a Paris supermarket contained a dye made from crushed insects.
“Never in a million years would I have imagined that ice cream was made with bugs, even if it’s only in minute quantities.”
Read more of this report from The Telegraph.
“The bright red food colouring, E120, is made from crushed cochineal insects, which are listed as an ingredient on labels, but very few people realise that they are tiny insects,” said Camille Dorioz, a Foodwatch campaigns officer.
The group is lobbying the French government to force manufacturers to list ingredients as “products of animal origin” where appropriate.
“It never occurs to most people that there’s an insect-based additive in an ice lolly,” Mr Dorioz said. “It’s a controversial product because of the risk of triggering an allergic reaction. There are alternatives to obtain a red colour, for example beetroot.”