Strawberry Frappuccinos No Longer Vegan,Contain Ground-Up Bugs

[SandEagle]

http://consumerist.com/2012/03/strawberry-frappuccinos-no-longer-vegan-contain-bug-extract.html

cock and eel extract. :hmm:

 

[SillyOReilly]

Everyone eats 1000's of insect parts a year.

 

[OutHouse]

yummy

 

[SunnyD]

On a side note, I never knew shellac was made from ground up beetle carapaces. Hell, I never knew there was even such a thing as a shellac beetle! And to think women get that smeared all over their finger nails. Lulz.

 

[Saint Nick]

On a side note, I never knew shellac was made from ground up beetle carapaces. Hell, I never knew there was even such a thing as a shellac beetle! And to think women get that smeared all over their finger nails. Lulz.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine#United_States

 

[lxskllr]

I wonder why they don't use beet juice. The flavor should go well with the strawberry. Cochineal is a common coloring additive. I don't have a problem with it, and find the revenge on bugs especially pleasing :^D

 

[brainhulk]

isn't cereal mostly insects?

 

[The Boston Dangler]

why do so many websites have non-working searches, out of order, defective-ass threads and frequent reboots? oh wait, it's just this one. to the clod!

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Vegans ruin everything. Here I was, perfectly content to dislike Starbucks because they burn the shit out of their shitty coffee, and vegans have to ruin it with their whining about some bug juice. Crybabies.

 

[arrfep]

http://consumerist.com/2012/03/strawberry-frappuccinos-no-longer-vegan-contain-bug-extract.html

cock and eel extract. :hmm:

On a side note, I never knew shellac was made from ground up beetle carapaces. Hell, I never knew there was even such a thing as a shellac beetle! And to think women get that smeared all over their finger nails. Lulz.

Shit, that's nothing. Read up on castoreum, used as "natural flavoring."

 

[Eli]

Shit, that's nothing. Read up on castoreum, used as "natural flavoring."

Castoreum is the exudate from the castor sacs of the mature North American Beaver Castor canadensis and the European Beaver Castor fiber. Within the zoological realm, castoreum is the yellowish secretion of the castor sac in combination with the beaver's urine, used during scent marking of territory.

....

often referenced simply as a "natural flavoring" in the product's list of ingredients. It is commonly used in both food and beverages, especially as vanilla and raspberry flavoring.

D:

 

[Dedpuhl]

D:

Castoreum is also used in small amounts to contribute to the flavor and odor of cigarettes

So that must be the smooth flavor that smokers crave and love!

/barf

 

[FoBoT]

there is nothing wrong with a few bug parts in your food
if the vegans are that upset, they should be grazing on the grass in the yard
oh wait, the grass is some bugs habitat, you'll need the EPA's permission to not disturb a wetland before grazing in your yard

 

[Oyeve]

The Cochenial bug is actually a nice clean bug. Been used for decades. It's not like they put roaches in there. I still dont drink from starbucks because its overpriced.

 

[evident]

The Cochenial bug is actually a nice clean bug. Been used for decades. It's not like they put roaches in there. I still dont drink from starbucks because its overpriced.

its probably grown in some sterile lab environent too... i hope

 

[Texashiker]

I dont guess anyone thinks about weevils being in their flour?

Want to see something nasty? Set a package of flour on the shelf for 4 - 6 months, it will start moving from the weevils hatching.

 

[preslove]

I'd rather eat something with this food coloring than something just synthesized in a factory.

its probably grown in some sterile lab environent too... i hope

Nope, they're farmed by planting infected cacti: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal#Farming

A nopal cactus farm for the production of cochineal is traditionally known as a nopalry.[19] There are two methods of farming cochineal: traditional and controlled. Cochineals are farmed in the traditional method by planting infected cactus pads or infecting existing cacti with cochineals and harvesting the insects by hand. The controlled method uses small baskets called Zapotec nests placed on host cacti. The baskets contain clean, fertile females that leave the nests and settle on the cactus to await insemination by the males. In both cases the cochineals have to be protected from predators, cold, and rain. The complete cycle lasts 3 months, during which the cacti are kept at a constant temperature of 27 °C (81 °F). Once the cochineals have finished the cycle, the new cochineals are ready to begin the cycle again or to be dried for dye production.[17]
Zapotec nests on Opuntia ficus-indica host cacti

To produce dye from cochineals, the insects are collected when they are approximately 90 days old. Harvesting the insects is labour-intensive, as they must be individually knocked, brushed, or picked from the cacti and placed into bags. The insects are gathered by small groups of collectors who sell them to local processors or exporters.[20]

Several natural enemies can reduce the population of the insect on its cacti hosts. Of all the predators, insects seem to be the most important group. Insects and their larvae such as pyralid moths (order Lepidoptera), which destroy the cactus, and predators such as lady bugs (Coleoptera), various Diptera (such as Syrphidae and Chamaemyiidae), lacewings (Neuroptera), and ants (Hymenoptera) have been identified, as well as numerous parasitic wasps. Many birds, human-commensal rodents (especially rats) and reptiles also prey on cochineal insects. In regions dependent on cochineal production, pest control measures have to be taken seriously. For small-scale cultivation, manual methods of control have proved to be the safest and most effective. For large-scale cultivation, advanced pest control methods have to be developed, including alternative bioinsecticides or traps with pheromones.[2]
[edit] Farming in Australia

The host cactus Opuntia (also known as "Prickly pear") was first brought to Australia in an attempt to start a cochineal dye industry in 1788, when Captain Arthur Phillip collected a number of cochineal-infested plants from Brazil on his way to establish the first European settlement at Botany Bay (part of which is now Sydney, New South Wales). At that time, Spain and Portugal had a worldwide monopoly (via their New World colonial sources) on the cochineal dye industry, and the British desired a source under their own control, as the dye was important to their clothing and garment industries (it was used to colour the British soldiers' red coats, for example).[21] The attempt was a failure in two ways: the Brazilian cochineal insects soon died off, but the cactus thrived, eventually overrunning about 100,000 square miles (260,000 km2) of eastern Australia.[22] The cacti were eventually brought under control in the 1920s by the deliberate introduction of a South American moth, Cactoblastis cactorum, whose larvae fed on the cactus.[22]

 

[Capt Caveman]

Starbucks to stop using 'crushed bug' dye