How to spot insect ingredients on a food label in 10 seconds
Scan the ingredient list for three codes, E120, E901 and E904, then check for their word aliases: carmine, cochineal, Crimson Lake, Natural Red 4, confectioner’s glaze, resinous glaze, natural glaze and beeswax. Finally check for Latin species names such as Acheta domesticus.
The 10-second method
You are in a shop. You have one packet and no patience. Do this:
Step 1. Scan for three numbers. Run your eye down the ingredient list looking only for E120, E901 and E904. Numbers stand out from text far better than words do, and this catches most cases.
Step 2. Check the colour and glaze positions. Colours are usually listed near the end of an ingredient list, and glazing agents almost always last. If you are short on time, read the last three ingredients properly. That is where insect derivatives live.
Step 3. Read for the aliases. If you saw a word rather than a code, check it against this list:
| If the label says | It means |
|---|---|
| Carmine, cochineal, carminic acid | E120, crushed scale insects |
| Crimson Lake, Natural Red 4, CI 75470 | E120 |
| Confectioner's glaze, resinous glaze | E904, lac bug resin |
| Candy glaze, pure food glaze, natural glaze | E904 |
| Shellac | E904 |
| Beeswax, cera alba, cera flava | E901, honeybee wax |
| Acheta domesticus, Tenebrio molitor | Whole insect powder |
| Alphitobius diaperinus, Locusta migratoria | Whole insect powder |
The four traps
"Natural" means natural, not plant. Carmine is natural. Shellac is natural. Beeswax is natural. Every one of them is an animal product. Natural and vegan are unrelated ideas, and manufacturers know that most people conflate them.
"Natural glaze" is shellac. Of all the phrasings in this topic, this is the one that catches the most people, because it appears on products positioned as clean and additive-free.
Latin binomials are compliant labelling. Acheta domesticus is the legally correct name for the house cricket. Nobody is hiding anything. It is simply unreadable to a shopper.
Carmine is used in savoury products too. Most people check sweets. Carmine also appears in some sausages, cured meats and savoury sauces where a pink or red tone is wanted.
Where to look first, by category
| Category | Most likely insect ingredient |
|---|---|
| Coated sweets, jelly beans | E904 shellac, E901 beeswax |
| Red or pink sweets | E120 carmine |
| Strawberry and raspberry yoghurt | E120 carmine |
| Red soft drinks and juices | E120 carmine |
| Chocolate-coated nuts and raisins | E904 shellac |
| Waxed apples and citrus | E904, E901, or carnauba (E903) |
| Some sausages and cured meats | E120 carmine |
| Protein and cereal bars | Whole insect powders |
| Coated pills and supplements | E904 shellac |
When reading fails
Reading works for one packet. It fails for a full shop, and it fails hard in these situations:
- Type below 5pt on a foil pouch
- A multilingual list where six languages run together in one paragraph
- A curved bottle where half the text wraps out of sight
- Any time you are tired, in a hurry, or holding a child
That is not a personal failing. It is the predictable outcome of a task designed for a lab bench being done in a supermarket aisle.
The alternative
Scan the barcode and the ingredient list comes back parsed, with insect-derived and flagged additives shown as coloured pills. When the barcode is unknown, which happens with own-brand, imported and newly launched products, photograph the ingredient list instead and the camera reads it directly.
The point is not that scanning is magic. It is that it checks against the full alias list every single time, including the fortieth item of a long shop, which is when human checking breaks down.
Frequently asked
What is the fastest way to check for insect ingredients?
Look for E120, E901 and E904 first, since numbers are easier to spot than words. Then read the last few ingredients, where colours and glazing agents are usually listed. Scanning the barcode or label does the same check against every known alias in about three seconds.
Do sweets always list shellac?
They must declare it, but frequently as confectioner’s glaze, resinous glaze, candy glaze or "natural glaze" rather than shellac or E904. All of those mean lac-bug resin.