You are what you eat: insect fragments and rodent hairs

Photo courtesy of www.fst.vt.edu (go Hokies)

I stumbled upon the FDA’s ‘Inspections, Compliance, Enforcement, and Criminal Investigations’ handbook and boy is it an interesting read. I have extracted some of the more illuminating passages and created an unappetizing list of food regulations that can be found after the jump. Reading the level of contaminants which the FDA allows in food production is a very eye opening experience. This is the kind of stuff you can’t unsee, so I am offering a Matrix style reading option: one red pill and one blue pill (note: pills may contain insect fragments). If you want to remain blissfully ignorant about what is potentially in your jar of peanut butter or tomato sauce, than take the blue pill, stop reading now and continue on with your day, because ignorance can be bliss. But, if you want to see the painful truth that is the reality of industrial food regulation than take the red pill and I’ll see you on the other side.

Jump

 

Note: The full FDA document  'Inspections, Compliance, Enforcement, and Criminal Investigations, Chapter 5 - Food, Colors, and Cosmetics'  can be found here. I have reformatted  the passages for readability and added some strategic hyperlinks and volume conversions but all the text below comes directly from the FDA. The descriptions outline the amount of contaminate that would prevent the product from being distributed for consumption, amounts less than the described quantity are deemed acceptable.....

 

Chocolate

The chocolate in six 100 gram subsamples contains an average of 60 or more insect fragments per 100 grams (3.5 oz) or any one subsample contains 90 or more insect fragments or  an average of more than 1.0 rodent hair per 100 grams, regardless of the size of the hairs or hair fragments or any one subsample contains more than 3 rodent hairs even if the overall average is less than 1.0 rodent hair.

 

Leafy Spices

The spice contains an average of 1 milligram or more of mammalian excreta per pound, after processing (mammalian excreta should be identified as to source when possible).

Milk

Cans of milk with 2 or more flies are considered reject.

Macaroni and Noodle Products:

Insect Fragments: Actionable if the average insect fragments in six or more subsamples is greater than or equal to 225 per 225 grams (8 oz) or rodent hairs in six or more subsamples is greater than or equal to 4.5 per 225 grams.

Cherries

Insects other than maggots: The cherries contain an average of 4% or more rejects due to insects other than maggots.

Canned Juices

The canned juice contains an average of 5 or more Drosophila and other fly eggs per 250 ml (about 8 oz).

Dates

One or more subs contain 10 or more dead insects (whole or equivalent) or the dates contain an average of 5 or more dead insects (whole or equivalent) per 100 grams (3.5 oz).

Peanut Butter

The peanut butter contains an average of 30 or more insect fragments per 100 grams (3.5 oz) or an average of 1 or more rodent hairs per 100 grams.

Peanuts

The shelled peanuts contain an average of 20 or more whole insects or equivalent per whole bag siftings (100 pound bag basis)

Wheat Flour

Examination of six 50 gram (1/4 cup) subsamples shows: Insect fragments - an average of 75 or more insect fragments per 50 grams or an average of 1.0 or more rodent hair per 50 grams.

 

Asparagus canned/frozen

10 Percent or more by count of spears or pieces are infested with six or more attached asparagus beetle eggs and/or sacs or the asparagus contains an average of 40 or more thrips per 100 grams or 5 or more insects (whole or equivalent) of any size per 100 grams, or insects (whole or equivalent) 3mm or longer having an average aggregate length of 7 mm or longer per 100 grams of asparagus.

Canned Corn

The corn (24 lbs) contains two or more 3 mm or longer larvae, cast skins, larval or cast skin fragments of corn ear worm or corn borer and the aggregate length of such larvae, cast skins, larval or cast skin fragments exceeds 12 mm.

  

Mushrooms Canned or Dried

Maggots -- An average of 20 or more maggots of any size per 100 g (3.5 oz) of drained mushrooms and the proportionate liquid, or an average of 20 or more maggots of any size per 15 g (.5 oz) of dried mushrooms or an average of 5 or more maggots that are 2 mm or longer per 100 g portion of drained mushrooms and the proportionate liquid, or an average of 5 or more maggots that are 2 mm or longer per 15 g  of dried mushrooms.

Mites -- An average of 75 or more mites per 100 g of drained mushrooms and the proportionate liquid, or an average of 75 or more mites per 15 g of dried mushrooms.

Crab Meat
When upon examination of an objective sample consisting of a minimum of 6 subsamples of fresh or frozen crabmeat, Escherichia coli MPN (Most Probable Number) of at least 3.6 per gram (IMVIC confirmed) is found in two or more subsamples and no inspectional evidence is available to indicate the most probable source of the Escherichia coli.

Canned Tomatoes

10 or more fly eggs per 500 grams or 5 or more fly eggs and 1 or more maggot per 500 grams, or 2 or more maggots per 500 grams.

Tomato Juice

10 or more fly eggs per 100 grams or 5 or more fly eggs and 1 or more maggot per 100 grams, or 2 or more maggots per 100 grams.

   

Tomato Puree

20 or more fly eggs per 100 grams or 10 or more fly eggs and 1 or more maggot per 100 grams, or 2 or more maggots per 100 grams.

   

Tomato Paste, Pizza and Other Sauces

30 or more fly eggs per 100 grams, or 15 or more fly eggs and 1 or more maggot per 100 grams, or 2 or more maggots per 100 grams.

NOTE: Drosophila maggots 2 mm, or less in length shall be considered equivalent to fly eggs, for the purpose of this guide.

SIGNIFICANCE (for mold and fungi contamination): Potential health hazard

SIGNIFICANCE (for insect, rodent hair and excreta contamination): Aesthetic

While reading the FDA guidelines, I had some questions:

• If the insect regulations are purely for aesthetics, how did they determine that 30 fly eggs in pizza sauce is aesthetically unpleasing? Was there a study performed? Were test subjects given samples of sauce with varying amounts of fly eggs and asked to rate their aesthetics on a scale of 1 to 10?   
• How does one go about finding insect fragments in a solution or sauce, wouldn’t it all get dissolved? Who does that job, the guy that finished at the bottom of his CSI class?
• One fly per can of milk is ok but 2 flies is not? All of the aesthetic regulations seem arbitrary.
• What is an insect fragment? Is half a bug counted the same as a third of an antenna?
• What’s the ‘insect fragment’ ‘equivalent’ of one whole dead insect, 6 legs, a body and a head? Or can you mix and match, 2 heads a body and 1 leg? 12 legs and a head?
• Why do maggots not count for cherries but they count for every other food?
• What is up with the sliding scale of fly eggs for canned tomato products? Why can pasta sauce have 3 times the eggs of regular canned tomatoes?
• Inspectors are looking for rodent hair which is all well and good, but what about human hair? Are they doing DNA testing on all hairs to determine the species of origin?
• Sub Chapter 565 - Meat and Poultry was conspicuously light and did not have any specific quantities of contaminant listed for testing. I am certain that canned beef would fail the 1 milligram or more of mammalian excreta per pound requirement.
• Is mammalian excreta a spell taught at Hogwarts for the relief of constipation?

We all know that insects and insect larvae are a big part of many culture's diets and it appears that they are a part of the American diet too, as long as the volumes do not exceed the FDA's insect fragment counts. And that is just the insect content in the jars and cans that leave the factory, who knows what else crawls into your mushrooms while the jar sits open in your favorite restaurant's kitchen (but if they're using canned produce they probably aren't that good of a restaurant anyways). 

Happy eating.