Have you ever thought about where food additives actually come from? They can be made from plant, animal, insect, chemical, or even synthetic substances.

Take Cochineal (E120), for example. It is a natural red colourAdded to change or intensify colour in food. derived from the insect Dayctylopius coccus, which feeds off various cacti plants. The body and eggs of the insect are crushed to extract the carminic dye. Apparently cochineal gatherers take special care to harvest the pregnant females, which have the highest concentration of carminic dye.

Cochineal is widely used as a colouring agent in food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, fabric dyes, and cosmetics. You probably have consumed a product with this additive at some point .. perhaps in a brand of maraschino cherries, cough syrup, gummy bears, jam, or flavoured drink.

Or consider Shellac (E904), an organic resin which is used as a glazing agentProvide a protective coating or shiny appearance to foods. or waxUsed to provide a shiny appearance to foods or used as a protective coating to prevent spoilage or oxidation.. Shellac is a resin secretion from a female lac beetle found in India and Thailand; the secreted resin forms a cocoon where the insect incubates the eggs she lays. The cocoon and parts of the bark are scraped off, crushed, washed, filtered, and dried to form yellow/orange flakes, often bleached white for commercial use as a glazing agent.

Due to it's high glossy finish on relatively thin coatings, Shellac is used in coatings for hard candies and in chocolate. It is also used as a wax on apples and other fruits, to make them look shinier and more appealing. Some of those food treats with "all natural additives" suddenly don't sound as appealing if you read into the ingredients!

These are just two examples of natural food additives. If your dietary preference is vegan, vegetarian, kosher, halal, or gluten-free .. you need to know the origins and dietary restrictions for food additives. In some cases, you may actually prefer the synthetic version of an additive over one that is derived from insects or animals.