This is because one of the most widely used red food colourings - carmine - is made from crushed up bugs. The insects used to make carmine are called cochineal, and are native to Latin America ...

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. 1 Read More: 18 Foods To Toss As Soon ...

After cochineals die, their legacy lives on in the brilliant red hue produced by their hemolymph. Dyes made from cochineal have been used in textiles, paintings, and even in your food! You’ve seen ...

For the National Geographic web series Ingredients, chemist George Zaidan studies what’s inside the food we eat and the items we commonly use. The extract of cochineal tends to come up a lot.

Squashed female cochineal bugs, to be specific ... But it wasn't until more recently that they made their way into commercial foods. From 1955 to 2010, the consumption of food coloring rose ...

But today, Peru dominates the market, and Mexico’s cochineal farms are disappearing ... cosmetics, and foods like M&Ms and Yoplait yogurt. Indigenous people across Latin America traded it ...

Cochineal was used to dye the cloaks of Roman Catholic cardinals and to color jackets that gave British "redcoat" soldiers their nickname. Today, cochineals are still a natural source of dye for ...