Informed mom Wrote:
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> It's also called Red 40 or carmine and is a
> frequently used food color.
>
> Well-informed consumers who read food labels have
> been avoiding it for years since it has been shown
> to cause hyperactivity in some kids, given that
> some people have a mild allergic reaction to it
> (and may not realize it).
>
> Interestingly, before being leveraged in recent
> decades as a food additive, particularly to make
> candy, cookies, and even yogurt look more alluring
> to kids, this dye was used as far back as the
> Aztec indigenous people in Mexico to paint the
> pyramids they constructed.
Red 40 is actually synthetic.
But cochineal/carmine is and has been in tons of things forever.
https://www.wired.com/2015/09/cochineal-bug-feature/
The FDA allows for 'insect fragments' and 'rodent hairs' in many products.
https://www.fda.gov/food/guidanceregulation/guidancedocumentsregulatoryinformation/ucm056174.htm#CHPTA
Chocolate - Any 1 subsample contains 90 or more insect fragments
- Any 1 subsample contains 3 or more rodent hairs