[Amadou]

Until maybe a decade ago, the most common source of red food dye was ground up cochineal bugs which look like ticks. Even today, if the food claims to be made from all natural ingredients, any red coloring is bugs rather than something from a lab.

http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/bugjuice.asp

[AlisdairO]

> To prepare carmine, the powdered scale insect bodies are boiled in ammonia or a sodium carbonate solution, the insoluble matter is removed by filtering, and alum is added to the clear salt solution of carminic acid to precipitate the red aluminium salt, called "carmine lake" or "crimson lake."

Seems a stretch of the word 'natural' to me :-)

[mcguire]

Ahem: shellac.[1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellac#Current