to never again eat, drink, or even touch any food that is even remotely pink?

[CoteDAzur]

Am I being unreasonable to sputter out the cherry yoghurt I was eating as I read the following, and swear I will never ever touch any food stuff that is of any shade of pink or red?

(article about the ingredients of Danone's Shape 'Feel Fuller' Strawberry Yoghurt)

Colour:

The pink colour of the yoghurt derives from cochineal (E120) obtained from the female scale insect (Dactylopius coccus) which lives on cacti. The insects produce the intensely red carminic acid molecule to protect themselves against predators. They are harvested by hand and it takes 150,000 insects to yield a kilo of dye. The insects are killed by heating and then ground to powder. The dye is extracted with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate.

Cochineal is back in fashion as a "natural" food dye because of the belief that artificial food dyes cause hyperactivity in children.

This is from this month's Wired magazine, UK edition. My eyes popped out and they might never go back again

thank you imsonottelling

Oh yes i know about this, is the reason i cant buy Mr Kipling French FAncies, it was in smarties temporarily then they changed to beetroot after complaints.

we are currently avoiding this food colouring, as my son had a allergic reaction to liqourice, and part of the ingreidents was this food colouring.

allergy doc thinks that its possible to react to this, as it contains protein from the beetle.

so we are now avoiding , until testing, the beetle stuff, aniseed, cumin and liqourice.

this natural stuff is causing concern for those with ige allergies, as its the natural stuff that does it.

we are finding kiwi in loads of sweets these days, and its adding another burden to our complicated food life.

Some people feel threatened by vegetarians. Don't know what's going on in their minds, but it's obviously deep-seated.

greemonkies my DS's green dragon birthday cake wouldn't have been half as yummy if I'd had to colur the icing with spinich...

littleducks I can think of some other reasons not to buy mr kipling french fancies

remymartin some of the vegetarians I know are quite hard. Could that be why?

I knew this info since I was a child..I'm sure there was some hoo hah in the past, I thought manufacturers changed ingredients and moved on to beetroot or something..

Actually it's obvious why people feel threatened by vegetarians. Vegetarians do have the moral high ground really, and that makes casual carnivores feel uncomfortable. Especially the sort of people who "won't eat anything that looks like a bit of an animal" or a fish with its head on etc. They want to stick their fingers in their ears and say "lalala" and pretend that their roast lamb hasn't come from a cuddly looking woolly baa sheep. Veggies put the kibosh on that, simply by existing. Spoilsports.

Haha, I was about 12 when I discovered that and as a veggie it's stuck in my mind. E120 and anything that looks/sounds like cochineal. I remember the horror of discovering it for the first time though so I do feel for you, honest

Shrug, its just bugs.

"Natural Flavouring" is also used by food companies to put in things that might put people off, so be wary of that too ;)

& All cheese has rennet, but some rennet comes from the animals themselves and other rennet can come from the process of making cheese (I believe?) so as long as the cheese states vegetarian rennet you're okay

And you're fine with the green v. You can find sites for american foods too thoguh, one called accidentally vegan lists loads of american foods (like Oreos!) that are vegan. And Jelly tots

Imso: I think you've hit the nail on the head there. I know very few meat eaters who are happy to have fish with heads on as you say, I know even less who would kill an animal themselves and prepare it. I couldn't kill an animal myself which is one of the many reasons I don't eat meat. It's hypocritical. Along with saying that it's okay to eat cow but to try stop the Far East eating dog. Indians don't tell us to stop eating cow so why do we have the right to dictate other's food choices?

Oh it's only a bit of bug. Man up. It will never stop me eating red skittles.

ImSoNotTelling I agree.
I shared a house once with a meat eater who used to ask me to prepare raw meat for her, as she was freaked out by the blood.
It's a dead animal - of course there's blood.

I am a carnivore, but happy to eat cute/gross animals, those with heads on, etc. It's all the same to me.

Ooo my art teacher told me this, I've never really thought about it though.

I will eat pretty much any animal (not endangered species though, we don't want to run out of anymore if possible). Don't mind, have killed my own meat before.

If you couldn't kill it, you shouldn't eat it.

ImSoNotTelling actually I disagree about vegetarians having the moral high ground. Vegans do though

I'd forgotten this too.

I slip up on peanut M&M's .

They do compared to wussy omnivores who eat reconstituted chicken nuggets without even having the decency to look the animals in the eye...

I agree though that dairy farming and egg production and so on can all invove cruel practices, like any high yield production line, where profit comes ahead of any compassion.

I feel sorry for the fish myself. I have never understood the eating fish but not meat approach.

Neither do I when most fish is left to drown but most meat is despatched pretty quickly. I agree about those omnivores but I wouldn't tar all with the same brush

don't forget it is sued in lipstick too:

Did you know that lipsticks can contain crushed beetles? If you can find reference to ?Carmine?, ?Cochineal? or CI 75470 in your lipstick ingredients, then yours does indeed have beetle shells in it.

from here

try googling CI 75470 and listick

Why do some people eat fish but not meat? I've never thought about it properly before and I've just realised that i can't think of a logical reason.

oops I mean used not sued

"Eggs with bright yellow yolks."

this one is actually a good thing: chickens who eat grass and cabbage (ie good green stuff) lay eggs with more yellowy/orange yolks. the paler the yolk, the less grazing (free-ranging) the hen has done

"All cheese has rennet, but some rennet comes from the animals themselves and other rennet can come from the process of making cheese (I believe?) so as long as the cheese states vegetarian rennet you're okay"

the vegetarian rennet comes from vegetables (but i'm not sure what type): it's a plant protein.

and yes, most vegetarians know that E120 (and E124) is cochineal from a beetle, that gelatine is a cow's hooves/bone marrow etc, isinglass is fishes etc.

nickelbabe: Thanks for setting me straight I read that a long long time ago and I'm reknowned for remembering facts but quoting them wrongly

Oo, isinglass. In a lot of beers. And E120 in red/rose wine.