Friday Fun -- What's Grosser Than Gross?

[kybearfuzz]

Here is something a bit fun and educational. Many folks maybe don't realize that there are allowable amounts of filth (insect parts, etc.) in a lot of different food commodities. Basically, it would be impossible to make a food completely filth free so certain limits had to be set. Here are a few limits that might surprise you:

• Average of 5 or more whole or equivalent insects (not counting mites, aphids, thrips, or scale insects) per 100 grams of apple butter.
  
• Average of 10 or more whole insects or equivalent per 500 grams of berries (excluding thrips, aphids and mites).
  
• Average of 11 or more rodent hairs per 50 grams in ground cinnamon.
  
• Average is 60 or more insect fragments per 100 grams of chocolate when 6 100-gram subsamples are examined.
  
• Average of 1250 or more insect fragments per 10 grams of ground oregano.
  
• Average of 30 or more insect fragments per 100 grams of peanut butter.
  
• Average of 40 mg or more of sand and grit per 100 grams of natural or golden bleached raisins.
  
• 2 or more 3 mm or longer larvae and/or larval fragments or spinach worms (caterpillars) whose aggregate length exceeds 12 mm are present in 24 pounds of canned spinach.

And my personal favorite:
-- 13 or more insect heads per 100 grams of fig paste in each of 2 or more subsamples

Enjoy your lunch! *wicked grin*

Update: Minor point of clarificaton (as noted by ericdabear). These are limits that when exceeded constitute a potential problem. So if it were 13 or more insect heads, then the fig paste product would be construed as needing a possible regulatory action.

Comments

[kybearfuzz.livejournal.com]

Well, probably any product on the market has some level in it. For example, have you ever left flour in the cupboard too long? If you do, you're likely to find flour beetles in it. The sifting before it's packaged removes the adult beetles and larvae, but the eggs sometimes can fit through the mesh screen and hatch later. They're indigenous to the product, it can't be helped.