US Red Dye Switch Could Lead to Millions of Animal Deaths
Major US food companies reformulating their red products to comply with a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) push to remove petroleum-based synthetic dyes could turn to carmine, a red pigment made from crushed bodies of female cochineal insects, leading to millions of additional deaths.
Cochineals (Dactylopius coccus) are scale insects in the suborder Sternorrhyncha. A primarily sessile parasite from tropical and subtropical South America through North America (Mexico and the Southwest US), this bug lives on cacti in the genus Opuntia.
The FDA’s phase-out of synthetic dyes is voluntary for most colours, though Red 3 has been banned outright, with a compliance deadline of 2027. Turmeric, annatto, butterfly pea flower, and gardenia can replace yellow, orange, and blue dyes, but red is harder to replicate, and carmine, also labelled as cochineal extract, Natural Red 4, CI 75470, or E120, is already familiar to many formulators as a way to reproduce bright reds and pinks.
Producing a single pound of carmine dye requires roughly 70,000 cochineal individuals, according to the International Council for Animal Welfare (ICAW). Hillary Hendrickson, the organisation’s Director of Negotiations, wrote on Faunalytics that the insects are killed by sun-drying, oven-drying, or immersion in hot water. Most production is now based in Peru, with smaller operations in Mexico, Chile, Bolivia, and the Canary Islands.
Since January 2026, ICAW has been urging companies to use plant-based alternatives, such as beet extract, anthocyanins, paprika oleoresin, and lycopene, rather than carmine, and to set timelines for phasing it out where it is already used. Several companies have made public or private commitments to avoid carmine in their reformulations. ICAW is still in discussions with around 25 companies and plans to publish a report and launch a public awareness campaign this autumn, naming those that use carmine or have declined to confirm whether they will.
Starbucks removed cochineal extract from its strawberry-flavoured products in 2012 following public pressure, after a barista revealed the ingredient was being used. Dannon, by contrast, declined to reformulate after a campaign by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, maintaining that carmine was safe and clearly labelled.
