  The cochineal beetle, or dactylopius coccus, is a tiny insect which lives on cactus plants, particularly the prickly pear cactus in Central and South America. The female beetles eat the red cactus berries and concentrate the red colour in their bodies. This dye can be removed and used to colour things ... it's called carmine. Carmine has been a popular dye for centuries ... in fact, was the very first thing exported to Europe from the New World 500 years ago! The bugs are scraped off the cactus plant into a vat of hot water, where they die. Their little carcasses are then dried in the sun, and crushed into powder.   It takes a lot of these beetles to produce enough colour ... about 150,000 of them are needed to make 1 kilogram of carmine dye. Carminic acid, which is the active ingredient in the dye, is very safe, and is commonly used to colour candy, ice cream, lipstick, yogurt, and eye shadow.
So the next time you're licking that pink or red popsicle, or putting on red lipstick, stop for a moment and remember all those thousands of little bugs that gave their lives so that you could enjoy that nice red colour! |