Adjust the details to match the level of your audience. You made your own colorful dye out of crushed bugs and water! The cochineal (koh-chin-eel) bug (Dactylopius coccus) is a scale insect that lives ...

Ms Butler Greenfield says: "Generally the bugs are dried first... nowadays food-grade cochineal dye is put through many filters to remove insect parts." Last year Peru exported 647 tonnes of ...

Nancy Greig: And if you squish them, they are bright red inside and kind of a purply, deep purple-red color, and that's the source of cochineal, cochineal dye, carmine, whatever you wanna call it.

Dyes made from cochineal have been used in textiles, paintings, and even in your food! You’ve seen this brilliant red before. In textiles, world-renowned paintings, even in the red coats once worn by ...

Do any of these remedies counteract the acid in the bite? Let’s investigate! To track what is happening with the acid, we will use an indicator that is made from natural, cochineal dye (which has been ...

and Mexico’s cochineal farms are disappearing. More from Big Business Cochineals are tiny bugs that live on prickly pear cactuses. The acid in their guts makes a red dye used in textiles ...

When the Spanish arrived in the Americas, they capitalized on this discovery and monopolized the cochineal trade, exporting the dye to Europe where it became highly valued for its color and longevity.

In inspectors’ view, bugs happen. Cochineal extract has few restrictions, provided it’s labeled clearly and not with a euphemism like “natural colors.” And to some food manufacturers ...