The Truth About Carmine

Consuming or wearing a parasitic scaled insect may not sound too appealing. However, chances are you’ve eaten them in some form or another as a food dye. And the brilliant saturated red color emitted as a defensive carbonic acid by the bugs has been used as a red dye for clothing garments going back centuries. Experts believe it may have even been used by the Calusa Indians. Although, perhaps no one appreciates carmines quite as much as the region’s endangered gopher tortoises as News-Press storyteller Amy Bennett Williams explains in this week’s essay.