Cochineal in a vegetarian product?

[hiddenfromview]

Hey guys... maybe I am being OTT about this, but a long story short... almost a year ago I reported "FUDCO SUGARED ALMONDS" to trading standards for having cochineal in them with the label saying "suitable for vegetarians". Long story short, Fudco was apparently aware of the issue and were working to resolve it... but still today in the world foods section, the product contains E120 and proclaims "SUITABLE FOR VEGETARIANS"

How misleading can you get? This is an Indian brand and therefore most Indian people would just accept the label, probably not knowing about cochineal, esp with Indian migrants that avoid egg, they do not even realise that something labelled vegetarian here may contain egg! Also the product is clearly not Halal....
What can I do to get something done about this?? Can we all complain in masses? I was not able to find any contact details for this Fudco company before, and therefore all of the contact was done through trading standards... HELP!

[Ruby Rose]

Umm... it's not labelled vegan is it, and lots of vegetarians are not at all fussy about insect products and slaughterhouse by-products - they eat animal rennet cheese, yoghurts with gelatine in etc. I'm not sure you'd have much joy in complaining.

[cobweb]

^ yes but products with rennet or gelatine in them aren't usually labelled 'suitable for vegetarians'.

[harpy]

You could try talking to the Vegetarian Society, hiddenfromview - cochineal is definitely on their list of things not to eat if you're vegetarian. They would probably know whether there was anything more to be done in the way of reporting them - have a look here:

http://www.vegsoc.org/political/grievance/index.html

[Stig]

I heard that cochineal is still non-vegetarian/vegan but can be produced synthetically also. It's just that there is no way of knowing which it is when you buy a product. It's labelled as e120 too. Who knows....:s

[Gorilla]

^ if it's called cochineal or labelled E120 it's always from the insect. artificial versions have other names and E-numbers.

hiddenfromview did you ever contact anyone about it?

[Stig]

Ah. I see. Thanks for the info.

[Lisey_duck]

The synthetic variety is E122 or carmosine. I may have spelt the last bit wrong. You know some messed up vegetarians - at least the ones in my life try to avoid actual dead creature products...