Cochineal Bugs Create Red Dye

That natural red coloring in your food and makeup might come from a place that may make you cringe: The ground-up bodies of countless tiny insects.

Thousands of miles from your local grocery store, farmers in south and central America make a living harvesting — and smashing — the bugs that go into the dye.

They're called cochineal insects, and their crushed bodies produce a deep red ink that is used as a natural food coloring.The dye is used in thousands of food products — from Nerds candies to grapefruit juice and red lipsticks. You'll never see the word "insects" listed on a product label, though. In 2009, the Food and Drug Administration introduced a new law that simply required food producers to list the ingredient as "carmine," a catch-all term for an especially deep-red color of the same name.