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Starbucks Ditches The Bugs

  • NPR, Friday, April 20, 2012 9:30 AM

Vegan consumers have protested Starbucks' use of cochineal, the red substance from the Dactylopius coccus bug for food and drink coloring. Starbucks President Cliff Burrows announced the company would color the coffee chain's goods with a popular, non-controversial vegetable extract instead.

"Our expectation is to be fully transitioned to lycopene, a natural, tomato-based extract, in the strawberry sauce (base) used in our Strawberries & Crème Frappuccino blended beverage and Strawberry Banana Smoothie," Burrows wrote on the company blog. 

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