Ever see “carmine” on a food label? Like maybe in pink ice cream or strawberry milk, fake crab, maraschino cherries, port wine cheese or lumpfish eggs? That red pigment is imparted by the carminic acid in the crushed bodies of female cochineal insects. The Food and Drug Administration requires that insect-derived coloring is indicated, but it’s tricky. It may be called Natural Red 4, or E-120 or even cochineal.

A very small percentage of the population has an allergic reaction to the coloring. I’m not one of them, but the whole thing just struck me as gross. But then I started looking into it, and it turns out the U. S. Food and Drug Administration has something called Food Defect Action Levels. There’s a whole site devoted to describing the “maximum levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods for human use that present no health hazard.” By defects, they mean the amount of unintentional bugs, rodent hair, excreta, mold, etc. that is acceptable in each foodstuff.

I've heard two pounds bandied about as the estimated quantity of bugs we unintentionally consume each year. On the other hand, bugs and other creepy crawlies are delicacies in some cultures.