Cochineal’s significance as a red dye has guided human history in the Americas and beyond. So first, what is cochineal? Cochineal is the name of the insect and the red dye that is made from it.

deep purple-red color, and that's the source of cochineal, cochineal dye, carmine, whatever you wanna call it. Narrator: For thousands of years, people have been using these bugs to dye everything ...

Joseph Borzelleca published a study on the food coloring Red No. 3. The FDA cited his work when banning the additive in ...

The compound that makes this red helps explain why the chain’s customers recoiled: It’s pulverized insects. For the National Geographic web series Ingredients, chemist George Zaidan studies ...

An curved arrow pointing right. Cochineals are tiny bugs that live on prickly pear cactuses. The acid in their guts makes a red dye used in textiles, cosmetics, and foods like M&Ms and Yoplait yogurt.

It takes tens of thousands of the ground-up insects to make just a pound of the vivid red dye. Now, a biotech startup called Debut has developed a new alternative: an exact replica of carmine that ...

Some manufacturers have already reformulated products to remove Red 3. In its place they use beet juice; carmine, a dye made from insects; or pigments from foods such as purple sweet potato ...