Red dye allergy = Bug allergy?
Carmine is a beautiful red coloring added to foods, cosmetics and more. It comes from the cochineal scale insects that are cultivated for this purpose. Rarely it is a cause of anaphylaxis, so we get one or two
#EntomologyConsult referrals a year to evaluate. We can go directly to an ingestion challenging but sometimes we’ll start with a prick test. It does make a mess but it’s a pretty mess.