I’m Fasting for the Duration
Okay, about twenty years ago I read a health article (in a vegetarian magazine) about slaughter houses, and I became an instant vegetarian. And, though over the years there have been a few E. coli and even salmonella scares, I haven’t made any major food shifts since then. I love to eat good food and San Francisco has the best restaurants in the world! So, between our local farmer’s markets, my own “homegrown,” and eating out in great vegetarian style, I am in gastronomical heaven! Or, I was… Now, after reading about how many insect parts, rat hairs, rodent droppings, and similarly disgusting inadvertent additives are permitted in processed foods and food ingredients, I may not eat at all. I may just pop a few vitamin supplements, drink distilled water, and give up on food completely. When it comes to rat hairs in peanut butter, or insect fragments in pasta sauce, I’m way beyond “what you don’t know won’t hurt you”!
The limits for such unwanted things are set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), under Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 110.110, which permits the FDA to establish maximum levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods that we, the people, can safely (and blissfully ignorantly) consume in a given year. Such guidelines have an impact on nearly everything we eat. Here in San Francisco, that means everything from the food you get at the Giants game to the food that’s in your kitchen pantry. Did you know that raisins, natural and golden, may contain up to 5% mold per 8 ounces, and up to 40 mg or more of sand and grit per 100 grams before being considered “unhealthy for consumption?
If that’s not enough, peanut butter may contain up to 30 or more insect fragments, 1 or more rodent hairs, and 25 mg of gritty, water insoluble inorganic residue per 100 grams. Tomato and pizza sauces may contain up to 30 or more Drosophila (fruit fly) eggs or, if you’d prefer, 15 or more fly eggs and 1 or more maggots, or 2 or more maggots per 100 grams in a minimum of 12 samples. Pasta may contain up to 225 insect fragments in 6 or more samples. And, cranberry sauce can contain up to 15 percent mold (frozen berries can contain up to 60 percent mold-containing berries). But, the most heartbreaking of all, chocolate may contain up to 60 or more insect parts per 100 grams!
As they say, “You can’t un-ring a bell.” Wish I hadn’t read what I just wrote! Bet you wish you hadn’t either…
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