You Are Eating Bugs And Don`t Even Know It: Flashback Article From 2015.

Starting to slip the bugz in!! pic.twitter.com/UNRvOrajmV

— Dr Shawn Baker 🥩 (@SBakerMD) August 15, 2022

Bugs may be the next darling food trend–look for bug protein powder coming soon to your granola bars and shakes–but that’s quite a different matter from the insects being quietly slipped into your food.

Health food and junk food, snacks and drinks, none of them are safe from a certain amount of bug matter that the FDA has deemed ok for our consumption. What kind of bugs are we talking about here? Just take a look:

1. Dactylopius Coccus

Red candies. You know you shouldn’t eat them, but you do. Skittles, Swedish fish, whatever your candy vice is, you might want to know what you’re popping along with your sweet pick-me-up. Carmine, a vibrant red food colorant, is made from the crushed abdomens of female, beetle-like African insects. It also shows up in some colored juices. So yes, there’s actually bug juice in your bug juice. Not only is this a little stomach turning, it poses an ethical problem for vegetarians and vegans who might not be aware that they’re ingesting animal products.

2. Kerria Lacca

Sorry again, candy lovers. It doesn’t matter if they call it confectioners’ glaze or shellac, that crunchy candy coating is made from secretions from the back end of the female lac bug. Shellec has a lot of uses – it might sound familiar as something you would use on furniture or your porch – including several that show up in our snacks. The candy coating that makes sweets look shiny is the most common, but it also shows up as a brush-on colorant. Check labels when you’re shopping for sweets, especially around big candy seasons; most Easter and several Halloween candies use shellac.

3. Maggots

Brace yourselves. Just because you avoid the processed candies doesn’t mean your food is free of bugs. The FDA legally allows mushrooms to contain 19 maggots – those rice-shaped larvae that feast on rotting food – in every 3.5-ounce can. As if that wasn’t enough of a reason to switch to the fresh kind, you’ll also avoid chemicals that can line cans and seep into your food.