Tell General Mills, Ferrara, and Dannon to Keep Crushed Insects Out of Our Food

Synthetic food dyes like Red 40 and Red 3 are on their way out of American groceries. That should be good news. Instead, some of the biggest names in food are reaching for a replacement most shoppers have never heard of: carmine, a red colorant made from crushed cochineal insects.

It takes roughly 70,000 insects to make a single pound of carmine. It shows up on labels as carmine, cochineal extract, Natural Red 4, or E120. And it is already in products millions of families buy every week:

• General Mills colors Lucky Charms Jumbo Rainbow, Chocolatey Chocolate, and Treat Bars with carmine, even as it tells shoppers it has removed "certified colors" from its cereals.
• Ferrara colors Nerds Gummy Clusters with carmine.
• Dannon colors "Light + Fit" Greek Strawberry yogurt with carmine.

This matters beyond the ick factor. Carmine can trigger serious allergic reactions, which is why the FDA has required it to be named on labels since 2011. It is off limits for kosher and halal consumers and for anyone who eats vegetarian or vegan. And nobody asked for it: in 2012, Starbucks pulled carmine from its drinks within weeks after customers found out it was there. Companies like J.M. Smucker and HARIBO have already committed publicly to keep carmine out of their products as synthetic dyes come out.

Grinding up tens of thousands of them per pound to tint a cereal marshmallow is a choice we can avoid.

Plant-based reds already exist. Beet, paprika, and fruit and vegetable extract color products across every one of these companies' own portfolios. There is no reason to swap one unwanted ingredient for another.

Sign to tell the CEOs of General Mills, Ferrara, and Dannon: commit publicly that crushed insects will not replace synthetic dyes in your products, and set a date to take carmine out of the ones that already have it.