Thanks, New York Times, for bringing us this little gem of a story. If you thought the stories of the contaminated peanut plant in Georgia were horrific, then maybe you should skip this post.This report claims that on average, we eat up to two pounds of maggots, mites and other critters every year. It's not like you're eating it in your sleep, so it must be on the actual food that we ingest...food we think is clean and monitored by the FDA.
In fact, the FDA doesn't care that this stuff is in our food and actually says a certain percentage of "natural contaminants" is OK. Here's my favorite part of this OPED:
"Tomato juice, for example, may average “10 or more fly eggs per 100 grams [the equivalent of a small juice glass] or five or more fly eggs and one or more maggots.” Tomato paste and other pizza sauces are allowed a denser infestation — 30 or more fly eggs per 100 grams or 15 or more fly eggs and one or more maggots per 100 grams.
Canned mushrooms may have “over 20 or more maggots of any size per 100 grams of drained mushrooms and proportionate liquid” or “five or more maggots two millimeters or longer per 100 grams of drained mushrooms and proportionate liquid” or an “average of 75 mites” before provoking action by the F.D.A.
The sauerkraut on your hot dog may average up to 50 thrips. And when washing down those tiny, slender, winged bugs with a sip of beer, you might consider that just 10 grams of hops could have as many as 2,500 plant lice. Yum."There's more, but I'll spare you.
This reminds me of the line in "Fast Food Nation"—"There's shit in the beef." It seems that was an understatement.
Will you ever be able to eat anything ever again after reading this post?
2 comments:
On the one hand, yes it's gross to hear about. But as we DO ingest it and we're not dropping like flies, my larger concern would be with a study into how all of those contaminants affect us. Because, hell - just walking down the street in any major city COVERS us in contaminants. Doorknobs, poles on subways, etc...and while there is some reason for concern, becoming overly preoccupied with it doesn't seem to make much sense. We've built up the necessary immunities necessary to deal with that stuff. If suddenly people started avoiding certain things out of fear, they might be worse off, health-wise.
Except for eating McDonald's. That really WILL kill you. (Damn, you, McGriddle for being so good!)
That is pretty sick. But it might make things worse if we all become germa-phobes. Interesting article, though.
I don't really trust the FDA these days (or any gov't agency, like the post office). I'm not sure I trust a bunch of low paid, 9am - 4pm civil servants in a bloated, near zero-accountability bureaucracy to keep me safe. If the FDA screws up, does it go out of business? No. Instead, they ask for more of our tax dollars and serve us another helping of bugs...
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