DailyDirt: Not Enough Flies In My Soup, Waiter...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Fri, May 10th 2013 5:00pm — Michael Ho

It's actually somewhat difficult to avoid eating insects accidentally. Bugs (or bug parts) get into our food supply all the time, and it's not really a bad thing (unless you're a strict vegan). Some folks, though, want more insects in their food, and not just fried grasshoppers or exotic scorpions. Insect protein could be a more sustainable food source, and arguably, our distant primate relatives eat far more insects than meat from other animals like we do. Here are just a few interesting links on insects in our food.

For over 20 years, candy lollipops with entrapped insects have been on the market. How many licks does it take to get to the insect at the center of a Hotlix lollipop? [url]
The Starbucks Strawberry Frappuccino was once made rosy red, not with an artificial color (like Red #40), but from natural colors derived from grinding up the dried bodies of cochineal bugs The bug-based coloring was safe to eat (as long as you weren't allergic to those bugs), but Starbucks had to switch to a vegetable-based dye because people were either grossed out or vegan. [url]
Some European researchers are trying to make insects more palatable for people, and a popular Dutch restaurant called Specktakel tries to incorporate an insect into at least one item on its daily menu. Insects are a good source of protein, and it is far less energy intensive to raise bugs than beef. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: bugs, coffee, coloring, dye, food, insects, lollipops, protein
Companies: starbucks

8 Comments

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Carlos Sol�s a.k.a. ArkBlitz (in the rest of the I (profile), 10 May 2013 @ 5:27pm

Come on!
Starbucks had to switch to a vegetable-based dye because people were either grossed out or vegan.

That's like saying "Adobe Flash was working perfectly on YouTube, but Google switched to WebM because people were either running low-spec hardware or Stallmanite freetards".
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Paul Renault (profile), 10 May 2013 @ 5:34pm

Err, I was going to say...
Starbucks had to switch to a vegetable-based dye because people were either grossed out or vegan.

Riiiight! Like you don't drink/eat/breathe in thousand of bugs every day anyways, eh?
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- Anonymous, 10 May 2013 @ 6:24pm
  
  Re: Err, I was going to say...
  Or maybe it was making chicks too horny.
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mudlock (profile), 10 May 2013 @ 5:49pm

"was"?
No past-tense about it: Carmine (the coloring created from ground up cochineal bugs), even if Starbucks isn't using it, is still used in A LOT of food and cosmetic products, and many considered it safer/healthier than alternatives like Red #40.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 May 2013 @ 6:06pm

It's funny where people draw the arbitrary lines for "disgusting". Bugs are gross, but chemicals and preservatives are not. Eating horse is inhumane, eating cow is not.

Personally, I don't actually care that much about what I'm eating, as long as it's safe and sanitary and I like the taste.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 May 2013 @ 6:33pm

I can eat bugs, hell when I was in Korea they had these bug roasts on every corner it seemed, they were good but I still like Bulgogi.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 May 2013 @ 6:44pm

Pigs are another food animal that, while fairly intelligent, is still commonly eaten.

And don't forget snake wine!

Most true insects are delicious if they're prepared right. Fried ants are peppery.
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Spaceman Spiff (profile), 10 May 2013 @ 9:59pm

Waiter!
Waiter, I said I wanted the stir fly, NOT the stir fry! :-)
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