One of my pet hates is when journalists or writers don't check their facts. Sure, I only ever bother for the blog if there's something that looks a bit sus or I'm not sure of (as opposed to rather obsessively for uni assignments), but even that wouldn't be a bad policy for the Sydney Morning Herald's John Bailey.
His piece on animal-derived ingredients used in foods that the ordinary person might believe to be suitable for vegetarians is based on a worthy premise- that consumers should be aware of what's in their food. But I have to take issue with his whinge on the colouring additive used in strawberry-flavoured Nesquik.
Nestle Strawberry NesQuik
Ever squirm at those reality shows featuring innocent souls forced to snack down on plates of crunchy bugs? The sweet kids' favourite used to be tinted pink with the innocuous "beet red" colouring, but the recipe has been changed to contain "colour (120)". That 120 is cochineal, also known as carmine, and is derived from the dried bodies of pregnant scale insects (the yummy sounding Dactylopius coccus costa). What's even more misleading is that 120 is usually referred to as a "natural colour" - the logic being that insects are "natural". And, apparently, snack-a-licious.
First, there's Bailey's claim that insects are not 'natural'. I don't even need to provide a source to discount that one, because it's so patently and obviously wrong. Not vegetarian does not equal 'not natural'.
Then, more importantly, there's the probable reason why Nestle switched from using Beet Red (INS number 162) to cochineal:
Because nitrate is a component of beet red, it is necessary to ensure that levels of nitrate do not exceed the specifications. Under these conditions beet red could be used according to good manufacturing practice with an ADI "not specified", keeping in mind the need to limit the nitrate content of foods produced for infants and young children.
One more bone to pick with the article- yes, John, some rennet is still made from calf stomachs. Sure, microbial rennet is preferable from an animal lover's point of view, but don't act surprised and shocked when you find that cheese contains regular rennet. It's like being surprised that cheese contains milk.
2 comments:
So Bailey didn't actually get his facts wrong, just provided misleading information.
Agree his wording is really designed to scare the reader about something that is well known and not really that scary, except perhaps to serious vegans -- with words like 'pregnant' and 'Dactylopius coccus'...
Well the fact is that beet red isn't so innocuous as he'd like to believe...
I would think the fact that beet red contains nitrates (which are present naturally in loads of foods but are strictly regulated as additives due to the fact that they may be related to incidence of colon cancer) is something he should have checked up on, rather than spouting off about how much less 'natural' the product is now that it contains colouring derived from bugs!
And the scary language thing is so tabloid. It's lame and misleading, and there's so much of it out there- Bailey is by no means the only or the worst offender.
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