You've probably come across a food additive called E120 in some products. This is a popular reddish-purple carmine dye, permitted in Russia and many other countries. It is present in sodas, crab sticks, sausages, ice cream, canned vegetables, yogurt, cakes and many other products. However, few people know that this pigment is obtained from the body and eggs of an insect – the cochineal mealybug, or cochineal. As a rule, manufacturers themselves, for obvious reasons, do not indicate that their products contain insects.
Cochineal is an insect that you regularly eat. Photo source: pofoto.club
Carmine is an ancient dye of the Indians
First of all, it should be noted that this food additive is not some new invention. In general, people have been using carmine as a dye since ancient times. For example, the Indians dyed fabrics with it, and in Armenia they made paint for painting from it. The Aztecs even specially bred cochineal on plantations. There is also some evidence that the Aztec ruler Montezuma took tribute from the conquered cities in sacks filled with Mexican cochineal.
In Russia, mentions of this dye are found later. The first of them dates back to 1876, when Catherine II considered it necessary to establish the breeding and extraction of cochineal mealybugs to create paint.
Female cochineal mealybug. Photo source: yaplakal.com
There are also documents that in 1804 Count Nikolai Rumyantsev asked Prince Alexei Kurakin to collect information about the “mealybug known in Little Russia.” Alexei Kurakin subsequently submitted a detailed description of the mealybug, its geographic distribution, methods of collection and use, as well as prices for the mealybug.
All these testimonies indicate that the dye has enjoyed extreme popularity since ancient times. And this is not surprising, since carmine is very concentrated and has excellent coloring ability. In addition, it has a wide range of shades. For example, food with the addition of E120 can acquire shades from pink to purple. This explains its wide use.
However, in the 20th century, synthetic dyes began to appear, as a result of which the need for natural carmine was sharply reduced. But, as already mentioned above, it is still used in the food industry, as well as in perfumery and even in pharmacology for coloring some drugs.
Mexican cochineal lives on cacti. Photo source: fishki.net
Insects in your products – how carmine dye is obtained
Cochineal, or cochineal mealybug, is a collective name for several species of insects from the order Hemiptera. All of them contain a large amount of pigment. The body length of male cochineals is 2-4 mm, and females – 10-12 mm.
Only females are used to obtain pigment. Their bodies contain a large amount of carminic acid, which is the pigment of the dye. The female cochineal, when still young, attaches its proboscis to a plant, and then remains in one place all its life and feeds on juice. Here it is fertilized and lays eggs. Males have wings and move from plant to plant, where they fertilize females.
Male cochineal beetles, unlike females, have wings. Photo source: fishki.net
The type of plant on which the females live depends on the type of insect. For example, the Mexican cochineal (Dactylopius coccus), which is used in the food industry, lives on cacti of the genus Opuntia. It is distinguished by a very high content of carminic acid – up to 95%.
About the same amount of pigment is contained in the Ararat cochineal, which is common in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran. It lives on the roots of cereals. According to some data, this insect was used to create a dye as early as the 7th century BC.
The dye has been obtained from cochineal for thousands of years. Photo source: fishki.net
In the European part of Russia, as well as in Western Europe, there is the Polish cochineal. It lives on the roots of strawberries and some other herbaceous plants. Therefore, it is quite possible that you have even seen it at some point. However, the carmine red dye obtained from female Polish cochineal is usually used only for dyeing yarn in the textile industry.
Is carmine really in Coca-Cola?
Carmine itself is recognized as a harmless additive that does not cause any side effects when consumed in concentrations used in the food industry. Only in some people can it cause allergies. In addition, carmine should not be consumed in quantities greater than 5 milligrams per 1 kilogram of human weight.
Food additive E120 is present in various products, from sausages to drinks and baked goods. Photo source: ashaindia.ru
However, there has been a lot of buzz around this food additive for a long time. The thing is that it is a revelation for many people that the products they consume contain insects. Some manufacturers sometimes do not even indicate that their products contain the additive E120. For example, a scandal erupted in 2007, when at a trial in Turkey, the head of the St. Nicholas Foundation Peace Council operating in Turkey, Muammer Karabulut, stated that the additive E120 was present in Coca-Cola.
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However, he did not provide any evidence for his words. The company itself posted a comment on its website refuting that Coca-Cola contains this dye. But, regardless of whether Cola contains carmine or not, it is still better to refuse to drink it, so as not to repeat the sad experience of the Mexicans. As for carmine itself, if its origin does not bother you, you can safely consume products containing it – it is definitely not the most harmful food additive for the body.