March 29/Seattle/The Seattle Times -- When Starbucks changed its Frappuccino mix a couple years ago, it made sure the new ingredients were dairy-free. However, no one said anything about being bug-free, and vegans are up in arms about the strawberry sauce used in strawberries-and-cream Frappuccinos, which contain cochineal extract, made from the bodies of ground-up insects indigenous to Latin America.
A vegan barista who works for Starbucks sent a picture of the sauce's ingredient list to a vegetarian blog called www.ThisDishIsVegetarian.com, which posted it earlier this month. The revelation sparked some criticism from advocacy groups questioning the practice.