CONSUMER BRIEFS / LABELING

Color additives made from insects will have to be disclosed on food and cosmetics labels by 2011 because of the possibility of allergic reactions, under a new rule from the Food and Drug Administration.

The red dyes derived from carmine and cochineal extract -- from the cochineal insect -- must be named specifically instead of described generically as “artificial color,” as they are now, the FDA said. The labels won’t have to disclose that the ingredients come from bugs.

The rule is a response to reports of allergic reactions, some life-threatening, to food and cosmetics containing the ingredients, according to the FDA. The ingredients are used in some makeup by Estee Lauder Cos., which said it would comply with the rule, and in some Dannon yogurts, whose containers already list them.

“[The] FDA should have exterminated these critter-based colorings altogether,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest. “The only way people can determine that they are sensitive to them is to suffer repeated reactions.”