This is what makes red Smarties red!

why does it bother you? I don't understand why people care unless they are vegetarian?
 
Steve2000 said:
Still makes me wonder though, who on earth first thought "How do we get the Smarties red? I know! Yes! We'll throw a million of these reddish insects into the mix!".
Click to expand...

humans have been using carminic acid to colour red/pink/orange food products far longer than nestle have been using it :rolleyes:

Hxc said:
why does it bother you? I don't understand why people care unless they are vegetarian?
Click to expand...

cos it's icky, and many people would rather not know where what they consume comes from (the is more prevalent in meat eaters)

peetee said:
red dye from - the colour 'Carmine' (E120)

do you have a source confirming the stuff actually comes from insects?
As theres a possibility they just use the chemical which is found in the insects, but buy it from some kind of chemical company who produce it - man make it if you will - this doesnt make it an artificial colouring as its still chemically the exact same as the insect?
:)
Click to expand...

you're wrong, they use dead bugs, end off. :)
 
Last edited:
Knew someone would ask for my sources so I had 'em all ready prepared :p. It stemmed from random browsing of the MacDonalds website - as you'll probably notice...

Smarties have E120 which is the colour 'Carmine', derived from the Cochineal insect (aka Dactylopius coccus [pics]). Used to be found in Strawberry McDonalds milkshakes until recently, but is in jelly sweets and a variety of other red things.

Hxc; Each to their own though really, some people will only eat chicken breast whereas others don't care what bit of the chicken it is. Everyone has their own taboos regarding what they think is okay to eat!
 
interesting, they also contain E122, another red colouring, which is synthetic and banned as a food colouring in a lot of countries.
So, synthesised additives are OK, even if they aren't necessarily better than artificial ones :|
 
furnace said:
I've long known that Smarties had some form of insect in them, I wasn't too sure what colour or what insect so I thought I'd find out tonight.

Pretty gross but thought I'd share :p This is what they get the red dye from - the colour 'Carmine' (E120) is derived from the Cochineal Insect:

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/4735/41124165ru5.jpg[/IMG
[URL="http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/hemipt/Dactylopius.htm"][SIZE="1"][more pics][/SIZE][/URL]

YUMMEH! Remember what's in your mouth next time you eat red smarties - or probably any other red sweet! lol

P.S. I'm not trying to stop anyone from eating them. I don't care who eats what![/QUOTE]

Meh pictures like that don't put me off food in the slightest. It doesn't look like that when I eat it, and it tastes good, so screw it :p
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom