Social media has been highlighting a situation whereas food items labelled with a little green frog do so because they contain parts of creatures that humans would not knowingly want to consume, but the truth is, like many of these social media trends, it could not be further from the truth.
Rather than being indicative of the product containing insect parts, of frogs in some cases, the logo belongs to the Rainforest Alliance. It has nothing to do with insects or their inclusion in the products.
The situation is becoming such a worry for a number of people that the OCU consumer association has set about clarifying the facts, and explaining what the frog symbol actually means.
The Rainforest Alliance certification seal, with the little green frog, indicates that a farm, forest or tourism company has been audited to verify that they comply with environmental, social and economic sustainability standards.
It is a seal whose granting depends on a control and supervision process by an independent body.
The truth is that the marketing of certain insects for human consumption is authorised in the European Union, beyond the controversy of whether or not to introduce insect flour into our diet, according to what is established by the legislation on the information provided to consumers, that is, food labelling among other means of information, all the ingredients of the food must appear in the list of ingredients, in descending order of weight, as they are incorporated at the time of its use for the manufacture of food.
Therefore, the use of insects would be listed within the ingredients, and cannot be replaced by a pictogram, seal or drawing. Some of the products are masked by names which don’t directly refer to their origin, such as “E120”, a red colouring obtained from the cochineal beetle.
So, whatever you hear or read on social media, the presence of the green frog logo has nothing to do with the product being made with insect flour, insects, or frogs. If you do not want to consume products with insects, read the ingredient list, but first check on your “E” numbers.
We will give you another one to help you in your research, E904, but if you are slightly squeamish about eating insects, definitely do not look that one up!
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