Too much information...

[JohnnyMac]

An easily alarmed non-brewer friend just sent this to me....not sure I care;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Food_D ... ion_Levels" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mr x]

Doesn't surprise me one bit. Or bother me either.

[Jimmy]

The Maggots in Your Mushrooms


By E. J. LEVY
Published: February 12, 2009

THE Georgia peanut company at the center of one of our nation’s worst food-contamination scares has officially reached a revolting new low: a recent inspection by the Food and Drug Administration discovered that the salmonella-tainted plant was also home to mold and roaches.


You may be grossed out, but insects and mold in our food are not new. The F.D.A. actually condones a certain percentage of “natural contaminants” in our food supply — meaning, among other things, bugs, mold, rodent hairs and maggots.

In its (falsely) reassuringly subtitled booklet “The Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of Natural or Unavoidable Defects in Foods That Present No Health Hazards for Humans,” the F.D.A.’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition establishes acceptable levels of such “defects” for a range of foods products, from allspice to peanut butter.

Among the booklet’s list of allowable defects are “insect filth,” “rodent filth” (both hair and excreta pellets), “mold,” “insects,” “mammalian excreta,” “rot,” “insects and larvae” (which is to say, maggots), “insects and mites,” “insects and insect eggs,” “drosophila fly,” “sand and grit,” “parasites,” “mildew” and “foreign matter” (which includes “objectionable” items like “sticks, stones, burlap bagging, cigarette butts, etc.”).

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.

Giving new meaning to the idea of spicing up one’s food, curry powder is allowed 100 or more bug bits per 25 grams; ground thyme up to 925 insect fragments per 10 grams; ground pepper up to 475 insect parts per 50 grams. One small shaker of cinnamon could have more than 20 rodent hairs before being considered defective.

Peanut butter — that culinary cause célèbre — may contain approximately 145 bug parts for an 18-ounce jar; or five or more rodent hairs for that same jar; or more than 125 milligrams of grit.

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.

The F.D.A. considers the significance of these defects to be “aesthetic” or “offensive to the senses,” which is to say, merely icky as opposed to the “mouth/tooth injury” one risks with, for example, insufficiently pitted prunes. This policy is justified on economic grounds, stating that it is “impractical to grow, harvest or process raw products that are totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects.”

The most recent edition of the booklet (it has been revised and edited six times since first being issued in May 1995) states that “the defect levels do not represent an average of the defects that occur in any of the products — the averages are actually much lower.” Instead, it says, “The levels represent limits at which F.D.A. will regard the food product ‘adulterated’ and subject to enforcement action.”

Bugs in our food may not be so bad — many people in the world practice entomophagy — but these harmless hazards are a reminder of the less harmless risks we run with casual regulation of our food supply. For good reason, the F.D.A. is focused on peanut butter, which the agency is considering reclassifying as high risk, like seafood, and subjecting it to special safety regulations. But the unsettling reality is that despite food’s cheery packaging and nutritional labeling, we don’t really know what we’re putting into our mouths.

Soup merits little mention among the products listed in the F.D.A.’s booklet. But, given the acceptable levels for contaminants in other foods, one imagines that the disgruntled diner’s cri de coeur — “Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup!” — would be, to the F.D.A., no cause for complaint.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/opini ... .html?_r=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tony L]

jeez, I probably eat 100's of bugs unintentionally every year while picking berries.
And if you want to know what is in your coffee http://www.businessinsider.com/how-coch ... 012-3?op=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[CorneliusAlphonse]

Doesn't surprise me one bit. Or bother me either.

same

[Graham.C]

Doesn't surprise me one bit. Or bother me either.

same

+1

[GillettBreweryCnslt]

This is old news.

Want to scare me, show me the same style chart with chemicals in our foods.

[Jayme]

This is old news.

Want to scare me, show me the same style chart with chemicals in our foods.

Yes exactly. A complete lack of insects from chemical spraying is a lot more alarming.

And who hasn't swallowed the odd fruit fly after it dive bombs your glass of beer? Back when I lived in Quinpool towers I definitely unintentionally ate cockroaches as well.

[ryantr0n]

This is old news.

Want to scare me, show me the same style chart with chemicals in our foods.

+1

bugs in hops are probably one of the more natural things we're consuming on a regular basis.

[Dirt Chicken]

I believe what people should be concerned about with peanut butter, is where the peanuts are being shipped from. A lot of peanuts used in peanut butter production come from countries that have heavy metal in the water used on crops, and peanuts have a higher likelihood to build up toxins. Ground nuts such as peanuts, have been shown to build up mercury through the shell in the ground. A lot of peanuts sold in stores, do not specify country of origin either.

[Jayme]

There was a farm in the valley last year that grew peanuts. They said they will hopefully have seeds for sale next year. That plus a piteba press, I'ma make my own peanut butter!

[derek]

Yes exactly. A complete lack of insects from chemical spraying is a lot more alarming.

And who hasn't swallowed the odd fruit fly after it dive bombs your glass of beer? Back when I lived in Quinpool towers I definitely unintentionally ate cockroaches as well.

The fruit flies are fine - it's the little black beetles (I've heard them called "beer bugs") that are the problem. I know where they've been...

[Jayme]

The fruit flies are fine - it's the little black beetles (I've heard them called "beer bugs") that are the problem. I know where they've been...

Like this?

I don't think I've ever encountered one in real life... or drank it and didn't know it. What's the issue with them? I only read a bit about them, but sounds like their diet is similar to fruit flies.

[GillettBreweryCnslt]

I don't think I've ever encountered one in real life... or drank it and didn't know it. What's the issue with them? I only read a bit about them, but sounds like their diet is similar to fruit flies.

I call them cat food bugs, cause they love the cat food in my pantry (too bad the cats don't eat them too). I see one or two every week or so, they're just harmless bugs.

[derek]

The fruit flies are fine - it's the little black beetles (I've heard them called "beer bugs") that are the problem. I know where they've been...

Like this?

I don't think I've ever encountered one in real life... or drank it and didn't know it. What's the issue with them? I only read a bit about them, but sounds like their diet is similar to fruit flies.

Very like that. If, as I do, you regularly have to sweep the lawn to pick-up dog shit, you'll find them in any piles more than a day or so old. 'nuff said?

[Jayme]

Very like that. If, as I do, you regularly have to sweep the lawn to pick-up dog shit, you'll find them in any piles more than a day or so old. 'nuff said?

That does create a unique opportunity call a bad beer truly shitty if one lands in it.