When you dig into a strawberry Yoplait yogurt, take a moment to contemplate where the beautiful pink color comes from. Strawberries? Think again. It comes from crushed bugs. Specifically, from the female cochineal beetles and their eggs. And it’s not just yogurt. The bugs are also used to give red coloring to Hershey (HSY) Good & Plenty candies, Tropicana grapefruit juice, and other common foods.
Other surprises: Wild salmon is pink because it eats krill – a luxury farm-raised salmon don’t have. So they are fed chemicals that lend them their color. And Betty Crocker icing is not white because of egg whites or cream or even Peruvian flake cocaine – its lustre is only achieved with the same titanium dioxide you used to paint your utility room.