The Maggots in Your Mushrooms!

Antaletriangle · 02-16-2009, 11:54 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/op...y.html?_r=1&em

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.

Jason Logan

Related
Times Topics: Food and Drug Administration | Peanut ButterYou 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.

E. J. Levy is a professor of creative writing at the University of Missouri.

Swanny · 02-16-2009, 04:41 PM

Started to read that then decided I didn't want to know, Thx anyway old chap

Orion11 · 02-16-2009, 05:26 PM

ohh my gross!!

tho not all that surprising.

buy local , fair trade, organic foods...
from small shops..
stay away from any big grocery store that sells these big name brands that amerikkka is so used to.
. blech!

Dantheman62 · 02-16-2009, 06:00 PM

I've been following this for awhile now since it's right down the road....
ATLANTA - First, federal investigators said the president of a U.S. peanut processing company knowingly shipped salmonella-tainted foods even after internal tests showed they were contaminated.

Then they revealed the evidence: e-mails Stewart Parnell sent to his employees urging them to ship out the products that authorities say ultimately sickened hundreds of people and may have caused the deaths of nine.

Federal authorities, who started an investigation last month, have remained tightlipped about possible charges against Parnell, head of the Virginia-based Peanut Corp. of America. So has the FBI, which raided the company's Georgia plant about a week ago.

But food safety attorneys say prosecutors have an array of options for what could be one of the Food and Drug Administration's most high-profile tainted food cases in decades.

http://www.cherokeetribune.com/conte...em/127964.html

Dantheman62 · 02-16-2009, 06:01 PM

Oh and as I sit here eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, mmmmmm yummy!

Swanny · 02-16-2009, 06:39 PM

Maybe that's why you get crunchy peanut butter???
You thought it was peanuts that crunch but it's really bits of insect bodies

For some strange reason I have six jars of peanut butter in my when TSHTF stores.
Never touch the stuff normally but it seems my higher self has decided that my tastes will change in the coming apocalypse, the Asians eat insects and they seem happy enough so mite as well enjoy it.

777 The Great Work · 02-16-2009, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dantheman62

I've been following this for awhile now since it's right down the road....
ATLANTA - First, federal investigators said the president of a U.S. peanut processing company knowingly shipped salmonella-tainted foods even after internal tests showed they were contaminated.

Then they revealed the evidence: e-mails Stewart Parnell sent to his employees urging them to ship out the products that authorities say ultimately sickened hundreds of people and may have caused the deaths of nine.

Federal authorities, who started an investigation last month, have remained tightlipped about possible charges against Parnell, head of the Virginia-based Peanut Corp. of America. So has the FBI, which raided the company's Georgia plant about a week ago.

But food safety attorneys say prosecutors have an array of options for what could be one of the Food and Drug Administration's most high-profile tainted food cases in decades.

http://www.cherokeetribune.com/conte...em/127964.html

I mangaed a Milk and dairy processing plant for 12 years. what they do with milk ,is really something specail.

Dantheman62 · 02-16-2009, 06:49 PM

Yeah a little roughage Swanny, bugs never hurt anybody plus they're high in protein! LOL! You've got the peanut butter, now get 5 or 6 jars of honey and you can practically live off of that. You get the protein from the peanut butter and the natural energy from the honey!

Dantheman62 · 02-16-2009, 06:50 PM

Oh god 777 I don't even want to know, even though I don't drink milk, but I eat cheese!

777 The Great Work · 02-16-2009, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dantheman62

Oh god 777 I don't even want to know, even though I don't drink milk, but I eat cheese!

Hey, we used to have a huge Government contract for years, for cheese and powdered milk. The guy from the gov't said that they were storing millions of pounds of this stuff in caves and he didn't know why.

Now i realize its New world order Cheese for those that bow down.

She-Ra · 02-16-2009, 07:53 PM

Wash your veg and fruit (fresh, tinned, packet or frozen) with Veggie Wash, hydrogen peroxide or something similar and as eXchanger says - do a bi-annual parasite cleanse.

Blisstasista · 02-17-2009, 12:36 AM

I hate to say it, but sometimes ignorance is bliss. I think im gonna hurl

cantaloupe · 02-17-2009, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kathleen

You think that is creepy? Watch this.....

Aliens are ON us

time for my second shower and eyelash plucking yuck yuck yuck

scanner · 02-17-2009, 07:49 PM

surely that should be ROACHNUT BUTTER

energymyfoot · 02-18-2009, 05:52 AM

Now think about how ASIAN people lives in ASIA...I was born and raised in ASIA and it is most unsanitary continent in planet earth...4 billions living...We are dam used to all this garbage...Our Immune system adjusted to eating real garbage....Even the water is contaminated with cholera and other disease and still we are surving this dangerous force...

You people who are living in US are atleast living in good sanitary condition...A little problem becomes a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig deal...

Just live your life people...One way or the other we are gonna die someday....

02-16-2009, 11:54 AM	#1
Antaletriangle Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: U.K. Posts: 3,380	The Maggots in Your Mushrooms! http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/op...y.html?_r=1&em 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. Jason Logan Related Times Topics: Food and Drug Administration \| Peanut ButterYou 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. E. J. Levy is a professor of creative writing at the University of Missouri.

02-16-2009, 04:41 PM	#2
Swanny I dont need a label ! Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: The Shire of Wilt Posts: 2,889	Re: The Maggots in Your Mushrooms! Started to read that then decided I didn't want to know, Thx anyway old chap

02-16-2009, 05:26 PM	#3
Orion11 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 1,098	Re: The Maggots in Your Mushrooms! ohh my gross!! tho not all that surprising. buy local , fair trade, organic foods... from small shops.. stay away from any big grocery store that sells these big name brands that amerikkka is so used to. . blech!

02-16-2009, 06:00 PM	#4
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: The Maggots in Your Mushrooms! I've been following this for awhile now since it's right down the road.... ATLANTA - First, federal investigators said the president of a U.S. peanut processing company knowingly shipped salmonella-tainted foods even after internal tests showed they were contaminated. Then they revealed the evidence: e-mails Stewart Parnell sent to his employees urging them to ship out the products that authorities say ultimately sickened hundreds of people and may have caused the deaths of nine. Federal authorities, who started an investigation last month, have remained tightlipped about possible charges against Parnell, head of the Virginia-based Peanut Corp. of America. So has the FBI, which raided the company's Georgia plant about a week ago. But food safety attorneys say prosecutors have an array of options for what could be one of the Food and Drug Administration's most high-profile tainted food cases in decades. http://www.cherokeetribune.com/conte...em/127964.html

02-16-2009, 06:01 PM	#5
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: The Maggots in Your Mushrooms! Oh and as I sit here eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, mmmmmm yummy!

02-16-2009, 06:39 PM	#6
Swanny I dont need a label ! Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: The Shire of Wilt Posts: 2,889	Re: The Maggots in Your Mushrooms! Maybe that's why you get crunchy peanut butter??? You thought it was peanuts that crunch but it's really bits of insect bodies For some strange reason I have six jars of peanut butter in my when TSHTF stores. Never touch the stuff normally but it seems my higher self has decided that my tastes will change in the coming apocalypse, the Asians eat insects and they seem happy enough so mite as well enjoy it.

02-16-2009, 06:49 PM	#8
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: The Maggots in Your Mushrooms! Yeah a little roughage Swanny, bugs never hurt anybody plus they're high in protein! LOL! You've got the peanut butter, now get 5 or 6 jars of honey and you can practically live off of that. You get the protein from the peanut butter and the natural energy from the honey!

02-16-2009, 06:50 PM	#9
Dantheman62 Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: So. Cal. U.S. Posts: 4,205	Re: The Maggots in Your Mushrooms! Oh god 777 I don't even want to know, even though I don't drink milk, but I eat cheese!

02-16-2009, 07:53 PM	#11
She-Ra Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: London, UK Posts: 159	Re: The Maggots in Your Mushrooms! Wash your veg and fruit (fresh, tinned, packet or frozen) with Veggie Wash, hydrogen peroxide or something similar and as eXchanger says - do a bi-annual parasite cleanse.

02-17-2009, 12:36 AM	#12
Blisstasista Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 46	Re: The Maggots in Your Mushrooms! I hate to say it, but sometimes ignorance is bliss. I think im gonna hurl

02-17-2009, 07:49 PM	#14
scanner Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: sea level England ,I must move Posts: 195	Re: The Maggots in Your Mushrooms! surely that should be ROACHNUT BUTTER

02-18-2009, 05:52 AM	#15
energymyfoot Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 89	Re: The Maggots in Your Mushrooms! Now think about how ASIAN people lives in ASIA...I was born and raised in ASIA and it is most unsanitary continent in planet earth...4 billions living...We are dam used to all this garbage...Our Immune system adjusted to eating real garbage....Even the water is contaminated with cholera and other disease and still we are surving this dangerous force... You people who are living in US are atleast living in good sanitary condition...A little problem becomes a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig deal... Just live your life people...One way or the other we are gonna die someday....