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De-Bugging Starbucks

Today's story is about the power of social media and a global company's quick response.  From USA Today: "Starbucks de-bugs its menu offerings."

Recently, Starbucks began coloring its Strawberry Frappucinos with cochineal extract. Sounds innocent enough, except cochineal extract is made by crushing the shells of cochineal beetles. Bugs.

And so a vegan barista tipped off a vegan blogger who alerted PETA who.. .you get the idea.

And now that yummy pink color comes from lycopene, a natural, tomato-based extract. (Of course several species of beetles co-habitate with tomatoes, presumably making it into our food chain at some point, but that's another story for another day and another blogger.)
At least one consultant thinks Starbucks acted quickly and decisively. "That's pretty quick when it come to companies making major changes in ingredients," says management strategist Barbara Brooks. "They were aggressive and didn't set up a commission with recommendations eight months later."
Why is this newsworthy at all? Well, there's the 'blech' factor of a story about bugs in our food. But, really, the fact that you've read this far just proves the rarity of Starbucks' response, more's the pity.
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