ATX PostStarbucks to be bug-free by June: What’s really in that red dye you’ve been drinking this whole time
Vegans and squeamish souls rejoice: Starbucks promises that its products will be completely bug free by late June.
Oh yes, didn’t you know? The company, which has been shifting toward more “natural” additives, made a quiet retreat from artificial red dye in its strawberry sauce earlier this year.
But according to the ingredient list, the new sauce, which is used in the Starbucks Strawberries Crème Frappuccino and Strawberry Smoothie, includes “cochineal extract” — a colorant made from the dried crushed bodies of the female Dactylopius coccus Costa — rendering the products non-vegan, highly allergenic, non-kosher and haram.
Cochineal extract was also a new ingredient in some of Starbucks’ food offerings: The Raspberry Swirl Cake, the Birthday Cake Pop, the Mini Donut with pink icing and the Red Velvet Whoopie Pie.
A great deal of push back made the company reconsider the bugs as a natural alternative. On Thursday, Starbucks president Cliff Burrows announced that the company will begin the switch over to tomato-based, significantly-less-controversial lycopene extract.
So, come June, you can continue to enjoy those sweet strawberry products without any hidden bugs.
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