My pigment supply company lists carmine and cochineal as lice. But most people are probably more comfortable thinking of them as beetles. After all, you are what you eat!
Carmine was once a popular fugitive pigment. (Fugitive means it fades in the light.) The prepared female insects were used as a tint for painting rosey delicate flesh tones over lips and cheeks. However in modern times these tiny bugs have made their way into numerous foods and cosmetics. Items such as: yogurt, juice, ice cream, candies, eyeshadow, even lipstick may contain ground cochineal insects in the form of a dye or extract.
Dannon, yoplait, tropicana, and hershy’s, to name a few, are all guilty if you consider eating pulverized lice a crime.
A lot of people have severe allergic reactions to carmine. Your alternative is red food coloring made of residual byproducts left over from the rubber and plastic manufacturing process.
Carcinogens VS powdered insects the choice is yours! Personally I would rather quit eating mass produced red and pink foods all together. But that’s a little lofty so for now checking ingredients once in a while for cochineal or carmine should suffice.
Just think, the next time your girlfriend kisses you, she probably has crushed lice on her lips.
Original source: http://criticalresponse.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/fugitive-pigments-made-from-lice-are-added-to-foods-and-cosmetics-fyi/
