Tag: insect

Cucumber Beetle in our Jiecai: Macro Photo

Spotted Cucumber Beetle, Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi, found on our jiecai, from our local Chinese store. I believe there is poo coming out of its butt. Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai

Icky maybe, but if insects are eating your vegetables, then it must be healthy to eat. These are photos the Spotted Cucumber Beetle, Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi, spotted on our Chinese vegetables, jiecai, a leafy green, from the local Chinese store. It was dead.

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Evil Rice Weevil

Rice weevil found in my Rooster brand fragrant rice. Imported from Thailand. Photo by Don Tai

Appearing in our fragrant rice, these rice weevils. I saw a dead one in recently cooked rice. This one was alive as I was scooping rice out. The are 2mm long and crawl.

We buy Rooster brand jasmine rice, or fragrant rice, from Thailand. Apparently they can survive for up to 2 years, but are killed by heat of 60C for 15 minutes, which my rice cooker certainly does. Apparently they are harmless.

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Female Cochineal Beetle and your Food

Interesting. Here’s an organic additive that creates deep and rich reds for your food or cosmetics. Ground up female cochineal beetles. I’ll be looking for these 5mm critters the next time I go shopping and begin reading packaging ingredients.

___Yes, the ingredient is called cochineal, carmine (carminic acid), or E120. Because beetles are insects it is not considered kosher, halal, or vegetarian. Some people can have allergic reactions to it, as was televised by “60 Minutes”. Yes, this kid almost died of anaphylactic shock. I’m always amazed at what is put into our food that we don’t know about. As usual, Canadian labeling laws do not give you any indication of its origins. While I do not have an aversion to eating bugs (they make a great supplemental protein source), I know most other people do. Cochineal can also be used as organic ant repellent.

___It is interesting that “60 Minutes” omitted to tell us of the long history of this dye and its stellar safety record. There was much sensationalism in the story, as if this was a new additive used by evil food manufacturers to poison us all. So much for unbiased reporting.

Female cochineal are flat, wingless, 5mm long, oval shaped scale insects. Dried and crushed they make an all natural, deep red dye for food and cosmetics

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