Carmine and Kirmiz

Carmine is a popular food coloring manufactured from extracted carminic acid which is present in female Cochineal beetles (Dactylopius Coccus Costa). These beetles can found in Peru and, as of today, that is only country where Carmine is commercially produced. Carminic acid has a red color and depending on the particular details of each production run, the carminic acid can be turned into different shades of red or purple Carmine powder. Contrary to what many people think or are told, Carmine is not produced from “crushed beetles”. The beetles are collected and dried in the hot sun for several days where they shrink to around one third of their original size. After the beetles have been dried out the carminic acid, with the help of chemicals, is extracted from them into water. The colored water then goes through what’s known as a “presser” which removes proteins, fat, wax, and all the solid matter that remains of the insect, and it sends only the liquid color to the next steps of production. The next steps include filtration, the addition of more chemicals to turn the liquid color into Carmine, a second “pressing” and precipitation which removes most of the liquid from the color and turns it into a thick paste, and finally drying and milling. When Carmine is used commercially it is always used in very small amounts, less than 1 in 60 of the overall components of the product into which it is added. 

Kirmiz (or Kermes) is a food coloring similar to Carmine which is made from kermesic acid extracted from dried female Kermes insects (Kermes Vermilio or Kermes Ilicis). It was first produced in Turkey and the Mediterranean area several centuries ago but today, from what I have been told, it is not commercially produced (at least not on any large scale).    

The basis for permitting these food colorings is the same as for permitting gelatin produced from non-kosher raw materials; once the extracted color has been turned into nothing more than a dry, tasteless powder whatever Issur there was on it originally has been removed. Rabbinic authorities who ruled on this matter pointed out the similarity between these products and the famous case of the “Or HaKayva Shenisyavesh” (the dried stomach of a cow) as grounds for permitting them (see, for example, Pischay Teshuva, Siman 87, s”k 20). Numerous authorities from a variety of locations and backgrounds have permitted these types of products for more than three centuries.   

The first teshuva (to my knowledge) that permitted these products on the basis that the beetles were first dried out before the color was extracted from them was from Rav Yaakov Culi, in Meam Loez, Parshas Teruma. He wrote that the insects were found in fruit and they would be gathered and dried out by the sun during the summer months. The red dye that came from the insects was used to color a variety of different things, including food. He wrote: 

ואין איסור בזה אע''פ שנעשה מתולעים כיון שמתייבשים ונעשים כמו עפר כפי שאמרנו, וכל שכן שאין אוכלים מהם, אלא משתמשים בהם לצבע שמקבלים מהם המים ... ואם כן, כשמתייבשים ונעשים כמו עפר לא נשארת בהם שום לחלוחית והלך מהם האיסור שהיה בהם.

[And there is no prohibition in this even though it is made from insects, since they are dried and made like dirt as we have said. And furthermore, we don’t eat from them (the insects) rather, they are used for color which the water receives from them….and if so, when they are dried and made like dirt, there does not remain in them any moisture, and the Issur that was in them has left them]

Here is a list of additional seforim of which I am aware that from what is written in them we can see their authors permitted food coloring from dried insects. This may not be a complete list:

  1. Tiferes Tzvi, Yoreh Deah, #73

  2. Tuv Ayin (Chida), Siman 18, sec. 95 and Shiuray Bracha, Yoreh Deah, Siman 87

  3. Ginzay Chaim (Rav Chaim Falagi), Ma’areches Tav,

  4. Nechmad L’Mareh, Kilaim, daf 97a

  5. Ben Avraham, Siman 50, sec. 32

  6. Chacham B’Chachmaso, Klal 40, seif 9

  7. Shaaray Tzedek, Yoreh Deah, Siman 100

  8. Ikray Dinim, Melicha, Siman 9, #14

  9. Pischay Teshuva, Yoreh Deah, Siman 87, # 20, (citing Tiferes Tzvi) ***

  10. Darchay Teshuva, Siman 87, #133

  11. Kaf HaChaim, Siman 87, #87

  12. Kinyan Torah B’Halacha, chelek, 1, Siman 114, sec. 2

  13. Yabia Omer, vol. 5, Y.D. #11, sec. 8; vol. 7, Y.D. #7, sec. 5; and vol. 8, Y.D., #11 sec. 4

  14. Shevet HaLevi, chelek 8, #184

  15. Emek HaTeshuva, vol. 2, #68

  16. Shoel V’Nishal, chelek 4, Yoreh Deah, Siman 31

  17. Tefilla L’Moshe, chelek 5, Siman 21

  18. Otzros HaHalacha, Melicha, Basar B’Chalav, Ta’aruvos, Siman 87, seif, 10

  19. Shoel U’Meishiv (Kovetz), Chelek 8, Siman 10

  20. Tolo’as Shani, chelek 1, Perek 6, seif, 41

  21. Ohr HaHalacha, Kuntres Halachos, Siman 3

  22. Sh“ut Me‘ayn Omer, chelek 4, Shechitah U’Treifos, Siman 8

  23. Divray Barak, Yoreh Deah, #1

  24. Divray Benayahu, chelek 15, Siman 17

  25. Avnay Levi, Y.D., #1

  26. Vya’an HaCohen, chelek 2, Siman 4

  27. Tiferes HaTorah, article by Rabbi Mishael Asraf, p. 328

It is also a reasonable assumption that all the Poskim who permitted gelatin produced from pigskins, and other products produced from dried and flavorless non-kosher raw materials, would likewise permit food colorings derived from dried insects. (The concept of “Achshevay” does not present a problem with any of these products. Achshevay only becomes an issue when a substance is added for the pleasure and satisfaction it provides as a “food,” not if it is being added for some other, secondary benefit it provides. See Noda B’Yehuda, M.T., Y.D., #57; Kesav Sofer to Orach Chaim, Siman 111; and Achiezer, vol. 3, #33, sec. 5. As far as the issue of “Davar HaMaamid” the consensus of rabbinic opinion is that it is not a problem when a substance has become Nifsal Meachillas Kelev).

*** It is astounding that something considered kosher by one of the Nosei Ke’ilim of the Shulchan Aruch, who himself was citing an earlier authority who was not disputed, can today be flippantly referred to as “treif”!