New apps scan food barcodes and ingredients for hidden insects

Eliyahu Tulshinski

September 5, 2023

Several phone apps now offer users the ability to quickly determine whether a food product contains insects.

Hidden ingredients

The apps scan either the barcode or the ingredient label and utilize a database to find matches. The database is critical because names rarely indicate that the ingredients contain bugs. A post on X (formerly Twitter) shows a number of common grocery items discovered to contain insects using the German app Insecten Scanner.

E120

One secretive ingredient is the FDA approved food additive with European Union ("E") designation E120, which may also be listed as carmine, cochineal, cochineal extract, Dactylopius coccus, crimson lake, carmine lake, carminic acid, natural red 4, or C.I. 75470.

Complementary Food reports that E120 is “one of the most common ingredients” in shelf food, despite being being made from crushed beetles:

We continue the serial articles “Ingredients That We keep away from”! This time, [it] is about one of the most common ingredients we find in shelf food. The natural carmine dye or the E120! [It] offers a red, purple or pink color to juices, sweets, dairy products, sausages, medicines and other colorful foods.

It is (as one of its names calls it) extracted from a species of beetles called cochineal . . . The carmine [E120] dye is made from the powder obtained by crushing the female of this species after it has been previously drowned, then dried. To produce 250 g of carmine, about 70,000 insects are needed.

People used carmine dyes since ancient times for dyeing textiles, but now we can find them in the food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals industry. [Emphases added].

"All natural ingredients"

Lilyvolt points out that by using insects for food coloring, manufacturers can advertise that they are using “natural colors.”

By using carmine, at least the front label of whatever product can tout that it “contains only natural colors.” (Of course, cochineal extract isn’t vegan — nor is it kosher.)

Many consumers will assume that the natural colors are benign plant dyes, however, the Complementary Food piece warns that, according to some sources, “E120 is responsible for a series of allergic reactions such as rhinitis, asthma [and] contact dermatitis.”

Minor ingredient

Besides creating a danger of somewhat rare allergic reactions, small amounts of insect ingredients render food items unkosher (prohibited) for millions of Jews and as haram (forbidden) for close to two billion Muslims, according to the South African National Halaal Authority.

Main ingredient

What happens when insects become a major ingredient in foods? Chitin is a primary component of the external skeletons of insects. When crickets are ground up, chitin makes up a large percentage of the resultant flour and food items prepared from that flour.

For many, chitin in food presents a health issue, according to University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers who recently studied the effect of chitin on the lungs:

A whiff of chitin triggers an immune response in the lungs, likely to prepare them to fend off fungal spores. But in some people, that reaction goes haywire, leading to dangerous inflammation and asthma. . . .

“[I]t’s become apparent that chitin is a very potent allergic inflammatory stimulus,” says Bruce Klein, a UW–Madison professor of medical microbiology and immunology, who helped lead the new study.

Resistance

Official backlash against the growing use of insects in shelf food has been sparse. Western governments have been promoting the trend of increasing use of bugs in food. Government-funded National Public Radio (NPR) even promotes baking with cricket flour in government schools.

These government actions leave Italy standing out for its mild crackdown on insect flour, restricting their use in certain food items and mandating better identification of their use in other items.

Individual resistance, however, may be more vibrant, as evidenced by the growing popularity of insect-detecting apps. In Slovenia, the Foodcheckr app, which checks for all harmful additives, has made the top three apps in the Food and Drink category.

A competing app, Insects in Food, is being promoted in the French-speaking sector.

Insects in Food advertises that it can identify insect ingredients with “camouflaged” names:

Consumer centers point out that insect admixtures in the form of powders and pastes can cause severe allergies and cross-reactions. With this app, you can check when shopping whether the manufacturer has added components of insects. The app also detects food additives from insects, which are often camouflaged with an E-No. like E120, E904. [Emphases added].

Another app, Insects Stop, touts its abilities to protect one's health as well as religious beliefs.

The app uses a database to scan the barcode of the food and then analyze whether it possibly contains insect components. Various ingredients such as carmine can be detected.

By using this app, consumers can easily and quickly find out whether a specific product is suitable for them, especially if they want to avoid consuming insects due to allergies or for religious reasons. [Emphases added].

Shining a light on the bugs

The effect of these apps in growing awareness of insect ingredients in food products may spur food manufacturers to remove insects from some of their foods,

There is a precedent for this. In 2011 the FDA disallowed the listing of insect ingredients as merely “natural coloring” without specifically identifying the ingredient. The risk of exposure led to a sharp increase in the number of potentially kosher products as ingredients containing insects were removed before the rule took effect. OU Kosher described the change as a “boon” for the kosher market:

FDA Guidelines on Carmine Bring a Boon to the Kosher Consumer . . .

[E]ffective January 5, 2011 new FDA guidelines require declaration by name on the label of all foods and cosmetics that contain these color additives. As a result of the new guidelines some manufacturers, who would rather not list carmine on their labels, have opted to reformulate their products.

An unintended consequence of the new legislation is a windfall for the kosher consumer. Some products which were unable to be certified kosher because they had always contained carmine have now been reformulated and may be eligible for kosher certification. [Emphases added].

Please see our previous articles on the FDA and the food supply: