Soon to be insect free!
How crushed red bugs got into Starbucks coffee as a regular ingredient: Companyrethinks it
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-kosherand 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.