New York Times on Dirty Food
In a fascinating (if occasionally repellant) article titled "The Maggots in Your Mushrooms," E.J. Levy enumerates the "defects" that are allowed in our food by the FDA.
Like tomato juice, which "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."
Levy sums it up by saying, "In case you’re curious: you’re probably ingesting one to two pounds of flies, maggots and mites each year without knowing it, a quantity of insects that clearly does not cut the mustard, even as insects may well be in the mustard."
Thanks for sharing. I think.
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19 Comments:
This is quite nice to know considering we are going to a Italian place for V-Day. I think that I will stick to a alfredo sauce. All I can say to this is, I'm still alive (I think), but yes it is gross. I think that I will not point this out to the BF till after V-Day because he is craving and looking forward to spaghetti and meatballs. lol.
pjracz10 at 8:04PM on 02/13/09
Maggots, flies, mites: It's just a little extra protein, that's all!
Traveller at 9:11PM on 02/13/09
I'd rather not know.
Kerosena at 9:25PM on 02/13/09
its all a part of nature to some extent..... i use an awful lot of tomato products.... especially paste. i'll never look at tomato paste the same way again.
how many maggots do they allow in the FDA? what is the acceptable level? i think they're way over the limit.
pooch at 11:58PM on 02/13/09
EEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
I'm eating nothing but buttered pasta and multivitamins from now on.
cowprintrabbit at 6:23AM on 02/14/09
I I don't know @cowprintrabbit, per the booklet macaroni and noodle products average of 225 insect fragments or more per 225 grams of 4.5 rodent hairs or more per 225 grams. Just sayin...
I think it's best not to read about such things. Can't do anything about it no matter how squicked out you get.
chisai at 8:21AM on 02/14/09
Um, 'trace' bits of insects are present in almost all foods, not just tomato paste.
HeartofGlass at 10:04AM on 02/14/09
Ugh...That's one article I will avoid. I'm not crazy about insects of any kind (except for ladybugs), but hey, they can be beneficial--think about the pollinating they do. And regarding ladybugs; I actually had 1500 of them in my fridge last spring, to release later in the evening into the garden. They're a terrific pesticide free solution to the nasties that like to eat my herbs and vegetables. But you won't find me crunching down on them.
dhorst at 6:33PM on 02/14/09
My parents used to tell me about this when I was a kid (early 1980s) when I'd complain about finding a hair in my dish. I've pretty much accepted that I'm eating rats, roaches, etc. pieces-parts in homemade, store bought, and restaurant food.
I still don't eat a dish when I've found hair or fingernails though.
Cassaendra at 8:38AM on 02/15/09
I read that and thought it was pretty unappetizing, but then I realized that no matter how you get your feed - mass-produced processed or homegrown from seed to stew - you're still going to end up with that sort of stuff in it. It's gross, but it's not outrageous, and there's probably plenty of gross, naturally occurring gunk in the air we breathe and the surfaces we touch as well.
Though the only thing I consistently find in my food is my own hair. I really ought to get a haircut...
tangledgray at 2:36PM on 02/15/09
What about those people who adhere to the "5-second rule"? I'm sure there's TONS more ick on those pieces of food, than in a single 6-oz can of tomato paste! Just sayin'...:)
momobotx2 at 5:58PM on 02/15/09
What you never want to do is store grain products in a cupboard through which heating pipes are run. You will very quickly find that your box of corn flakes has turned into a diorama entitles "Life-Cycle of the Pantry Moth". Just saying.
annien at 6:51PM on 02/15/09
@annien--I'm sure my youngest son would love to try out "Life-Cycle of the Pantry Moth" for the school science fair. He would find that an interesting experiment to document. Let's watch the vermin grow! Gross out factor alone would have him hooked. However, I just don't know what I would do with everything else in that cupboard. Oh, well, looks like we'll try and find another science project.
dhorst at 8:00PM on 02/15/09
Those standards are as a result of our compromises to NAFTA, MFN status w/China, GATT and the rest the WTO demands. Those are European, Asian, Latin American, and Caribbean food standards. I long for the good old days of the '70s when the Brits used to complain that we were too tough on their standards, which allowed for a certain amount of rat hairs in their biscuits and crackers.
We used to have impeccable food, drug and product safety standards, now we're condemned to a never ending stream of ecoli and salmonella outbreaks courtesy of the filthy standards of so much of the rest of the world.
Mares at 8:08PM on 02/15/09
@tangledgray -- at this point, I've pretty much given up and accepted the fact that no matter how short I cut my hair or how tight my french braid is, my hair is still going to be EVERYWHERE. It's got a mind of its own, I swear.
@annien -- cornflakes, flour, granola, dried soup mixes -- I really don't think there's anything those buggers won't touch. I'm completely paranoid and keep all of my flour and other such things either on the counter where I can check on them or in the fridge, haha.
@OP -- You know, I was really interested in reading the article, but after reading the comments ... I think I'll pass. Good to know our government is on top of things as usual, though. *rolls eyes*
kfarrel3 at 8:29PM on 02/15/09
I ate fried cicadas (with garlic & hot peppers) in Thailand, lovingly prepared by my sister-in-law. Un-fried bug parts in my granola sounds healthier. My only suggestion...stop reading about it. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.
SueZeeQ at 12:16PM on 02/16/09
@Mares: we're lucky in this country to have one of the safest food-streams in the world. Don't look at the peanut catastrophe and tell me that there's a "never ending stream of ecoli and salmonella." For a country this big, there are precious few outbreaks. I'd hazard a guess that those commenting "yuck, eeew" here would be the first ones to revolt if the prices were to escalate consummate with a no-tolerance policy on maggots, bug bits and rodent hairs.
shaogo at 2:13PM on 02/16/09
If you really want to be grossed out, read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Its all about the good old days before the FDA and USDA.
jboylan at 5:30PM on 02/16/09
Cochineal extract, which is used as a red coloring in food and cosmetics is widely used and made from crushed up bugs. Eating bugs and other nasties is just a fact of life - nothing to get grossed out about!
Check out the cochineal bugs: http://www.goodeater.org/2/post/2009/01/bugs-in-your-grub.html
GoodEaterKenji at 3:15PM on 02/17/09