justamom
12-31-2006, 12:48 AM
Ok, I am reading this book I checked out at the library. It is called:
Chew On This Everything you don't want to know about fast food by Eric Schlosser & Charles Wilson.
I was reading a part about color additives in processed foods. Here is what I read:
"Many of the Jersey's flavor companies also manufacture these color additives, which are used to make food look good. Good coloring serves much the same purpose as women's makeup, and it's often made from the same basice ingredients. Titanium dioxide, for example, is a mineral with many different uses. It can give candies, frosting, and icing their bright white colors. It is used as a coloring in makeup. And it is also comonly used in the white house paints. So you can use titanium dioxide to ice your cake--or paint your house. At Burger King, Wendy's, and McDonald's, color additives can be found in many of the sodas, salad dressings, cookies, chicken dishes, and even sandwich buns."
OK, here comes the really gross part ladies...
"One of the most widely used color additives comes from an unexpected source. Cochineal extract (also known as carmine or carminic acid) is made from the dead bodies of small bugs harvested mainly in Peru and the Canary Islands. The female Dactylopius coccus costa likes to feed on cactus pads, and color from the cactus gathers in her body and her eggs. The little bugs are collected, dried, and ground into a coloring additive. It takes about 70,000 of the insects to make a pound of carmine, which is used to make processed foods look pink, red, or purple. Dannon stawberry yogurt gets its color from carmine, as do many candies, frozen fruit bars, fruit fillings, and Ocean Spray pink grapefruit juice drink."
Ew, yuck!
If you want to see what the bug looks like here is a link with more info on the insect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal
Chew On This Everything you don't want to know about fast food by Eric Schlosser & Charles Wilson.
I was reading a part about color additives in processed foods. Here is what I read:
"Many of the Jersey's flavor companies also manufacture these color additives, which are used to make food look good. Good coloring serves much the same purpose as women's makeup, and it's often made from the same basice ingredients. Titanium dioxide, for example, is a mineral with many different uses. It can give candies, frosting, and icing their bright white colors. It is used as a coloring in makeup. And it is also comonly used in the white house paints. So you can use titanium dioxide to ice your cake--or paint your house. At Burger King, Wendy's, and McDonald's, color additives can be found in many of the sodas, salad dressings, cookies, chicken dishes, and even sandwich buns."
OK, here comes the really gross part ladies...
"One of the most widely used color additives comes from an unexpected source. Cochineal extract (also known as carmine or carminic acid) is made from the dead bodies of small bugs harvested mainly in Peru and the Canary Islands. The female Dactylopius coccus costa likes to feed on cactus pads, and color from the cactus gathers in her body and her eggs. The little bugs are collected, dried, and ground into a coloring additive. It takes about 70,000 of the insects to make a pound of carmine, which is used to make processed foods look pink, red, or purple. Dannon stawberry yogurt gets its color from carmine, as do many candies, frozen fruit bars, fruit fillings, and Ocean Spray pink grapefruit juice drink."
Ew, yuck!
If you want to see what the bug looks like here is a link with more info on the insect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal