Starbucks has announced that it will stop using red food coloring made from crushed up bugs by June. The coffee company caved under the huge consumer backlash after it was revealed that it started using the natural but decidedly icky-to-non-bug-eaters additive in its strawberry-flavored drinks, raspberry swirl cake and red velvet whoppie pie last month.
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The substance is called cochineal extract and it's not new. Also known as carmine, it's been used as a coloring agent since the 15th century and is found in a lot of foodstuffs we consume today (just check the label for cochineal extract or carmine).
Starbucks will instead use lycopene, a tomato-based extract.
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.