If red M&M's are back, are they safer? Or was there never a real problem?

I couldn’t keep the red dye #'s straight.

Are marischino cherries better now, or are we just ignoring the problem there?

And a key question I have is why allow a bad red for “limited” use when there are five or six numbered reds to choose from. How many do we need? Why not just allow the one or too that are totally safe, the ones made from apples or cherries, not dung beetles.

We are talking about events which I think took place about 10 or 15 years ago, but I think I can give you a partial answer. At that time, the U.S. government pulled Red Dye #2 off the market. Red M&M’s didn’t actually use this dye, but because of all the publicity, the M&M Mars candy company decided to pull all the red M&Ms from the mix for a while, just in case people were worried.

According to my brother, M&M Mars came up with a neat plan to test the waters as to whether the public was ready to embrace red M&Ms again. During one Christmas season, they started selling a special Christmas version, which had only red and green M&Ms. The public had no qualms about the reappearance of the reds in the special version, so a short time later they were reintroduced, with great fanfare, into the regular mix.

[HomerSimpson]mmmmm…. Crushed dung beetle…. Ahhaallalalahhahaha[/HomerSimpson]

Who decided that pink grapefruit juice looked like smashed bugs? And why would you say NOT dung beetles?

I think he must mean cochineal red, the color made by Phoenicians for their kings’ garments with “beetle farms”.
Still popular in some countries.

The color vermilion is made from worms, hence the name.

US law requires individual listing of all artificial flavors and colors. Natural versions can be lumped together as “natural flavors and colors” on a list of ingredients.
Carmine is a popular red dye used in sodas, fruit cocktails , many other foods and even lipstick. Carmine is indeed made from the crushed exoskeleton of a kind of beetle. For more info on bugs and other disgusting ingredients check out a kosher website

Or, you could get the word straight from the Master…
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_118.html

Incorrect.

Vermillion is mercuric sulfide, it is a plain old chemical.

Perhaps you were thinking of “Red Lac” which is made from the secretions of the Lac Beetle. The beetles are not part of the pigment, just their secretions, which are usually gathered from branches of trees infested by the beetles.

VERMILLION! WORMILION! Das Joke! Get it???

SARCHASM
The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.