No more bugs in Starbucks’ Frappuccino

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After outrage from vegans and vegetarians over the coffee chain’s use of red dye made from insects, Starbucks President Cliff Burrows announced a transition to a less offensive food coloring, the Los Angeles Times reports. Cochineal extract, the dye that lends a pretty crimson hue to the coffee mogul’s Strawberry Banana Smoothie, Strawberries and Crème Frappuccino, Rasperry Swirl Cake and Birthday Cake Pop, is actually made from the tiny, white Dactylopius coccus. The insects, typically found on cacti in Latin America, exude a vibrant red color when crushed.

Cochineal extract has been used as a traditional dye for centuries and is approved as a food coloring by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (Although the FDA does require companies to notify consumers if a product contains carmine dye, another name for the coloring; as ABC notes, the World Health Organization has found it to cause allergies.)

But still, ew, bugs. After a distraught barista decried the use of the extract on ThisDishIsVegtarian.com last month, more than 6,500 customers signed a Change.org petition to force the coffee giant to change its practice. Though Starbucks initially defended the bug juice as a natural ingredient and noted that it’s widely used in the food industry, the company eventually conceded.

“As our customers you expect and deserve better – and we promise to do better,” Starbucks’ U.S. President Cliff Burrows posted in a blog Thursday, apologizing and announcing a June deadline for the phase out of the extract in exchange for lycopene, a vegetarian-friendly tomato-based dye.

time.com

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15 responses to “No more bugs in Starbucks’ Frappuccino”

  1. Disgusting! BTW eating anything made from insects is not Kosher for religious Jews. The only exception is the Locust (Arbe in Hebrew), but only Jews in Yemen were used to eat that. 

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Not KOSHER ??? Not HALAL ???
      Listen … I can make little tiny knives for slitting the bug’s throats …. and it would give work to a lot of lazy religious guys I’m sure … we could start a new business Omeriko. Export the religious guys from the ME and import the ‘certified-godly’ bug-protein for muscle-building new olympians.
      It’s all about ‘marketing’. Think about it. 🙂

  2. Disgusting! BTW eating anything made from insects is not Kosher for religious Jews. The only exception is the Locust (Arbe in Hebrew), but only Jews in Yemen were used to eat that. 

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Not KOSHER ??? Not HALAL ???
      Listen … I can make little tiny knives for slitting the bug’s throats …. and it would give work to a lot of lazy religious guys I’m sure … we could start a new business Omeriko. Export the religious guys from the ME and import the ‘certified-godly’ bug-protein for muscle-building new olympians.
      It’s all about ‘marketing’. Think about it. 🙂

  3. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    Stupid Vegans … I CAN HEAR THE TOMATOES SCREAMING NOW !!!
    You’d think they would be happy to have some possible bug-protein added to the coffee.
    The amazing thing on this is that it only took 6500 signatures to change something they think is bad?? Wow. Talk about a paranoid company in the land of paranoia. Anyone want to sign a thing against Green Tea??
    Why not just order plain coffee … idiots.
    But vegans are terrorists too, aren’t they? Trying to put bug-pickers out of work – Anti Latin American bias there – and USA-American tomatoes are suffering more because of it – although it might help those illegal tomato-pickers from Mexico – which everyone hates too. Damn .. sign a petition!!!  In fact, I have a drawer-full of ideas to sign against. Mwahahahhahaaaa…..

  4. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    Stupid Vegans … I CAN HEAR THE TOMATOES SCREAMING NOW !!!
    You’d think they would be happy to have some possible bug-protein added to the coffee.
    The amazing thing on this is that it only took 6500 signatures to change something they think is bad?? Wow. Talk about a paranoid company in the land of paranoia. Anyone want to sign a thing against Green Tea??
    Why not just order plain coffee … idiots.
    But vegans are terrorists too, aren’t they? Trying to put bug-pickers out of work – Anti Latin American bias there – and USA-American tomatoes are suffering more because of it – although it might help those illegal tomato-pickers from Mexico – which everyone hates too. Damn .. sign a petition!!!  In fact, I have a drawer-full of ideas to sign against. Mwahahahhahaaaa…..

  5. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    Stupid Vegans … I CAN HEAR THE TOMATOES SCREAMING NOW !!!
    You’d think they would be happy to have some possible bug-protein added to the coffee.
    The amazing thing on this is that it only took 6500 signatures to change something they think is bad?? Wow. Talk about a paranoid company in the land of paranoia. Anyone want to sign a thing against Green Tea??
    Why not just order plain coffee … idiots.
    But vegans are terrorists too, aren’t they? Trying to put bug-pickers out of work – Anti Latin American bias there – and USA-American tomatoes are suffering more because of it – although it might help those illegal tomato-pickers from Mexico – which everyone hates too. Damn .. sign a petition!!!  In fact, I have a drawer-full of ideas to sign against. Mwahahahhahaaaa…..

  6. crgarciab81 Avatar
    crgarciab81

    This is kinda stupid… the cochineal extract is the product of a chemical process on the sun dried body of an insect. Right. But is not like eating roaches, you ignorants! The cochineal extract is an approved dye because it is natural and replaced the toxic artificial dyes modern cultures used at the begging of last century. This natural dye is been used by ancient cultures for millenia and is part of the lost knowledge we have recovered. Besides, if you are now surprised and grossed pls let me tell you that cochineal extract is used in clothing and make-up industries so people don’t have to use the poisonous lead based dyes. So… congratulations to all the thousands of very smart participants of this petition. You have succeded in giving a bad name to the most natural approved dye in the market and on affecting the economy of thousands of farmers in south and central america who live on providing the insects to the dye manufactures who provide the dye to many food companies as Starbucks. Good job!     

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Thank you crgarciab81. Someone had to know what it was … the newspapers and Vegans obviously don’t.

  7. crgarciab81 Avatar
    crgarciab81

    This is kinda stupid… the cochineal extract is the product of a chemical process on the sun dried body of an insect. Right. But is not like eating roaches, you ignorants! The cochineal extract is an approved dye because it is natural and replaced the toxic artificial dyes modern cultures used at the begging of last century. This natural dye is been used by ancient cultures for millenia and is part of the lost knowledge we have recovered. Besides, if you are now surprised and grossed pls let me tell you that cochineal extract is used in clothing and make-up industries so people don’t have to use the poisonous lead based dyes. So… congratulations to all the thousands of very smart participants of this petition. You have succeded in giving a bad name to the most natural approved dye in the market and on affecting the economy of thousands of farmers in south and central america who live on providing the insects to the dye manufactures who provide the dye to many food companies as Starbucks. Good job!     

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Thank you crgarciab81. Someone had to know what it was … the newspapers and Vegans obviously don’t.

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