Holiday season is coming and everyone seems to be geared towards lots of eating. Since almost everyone is thinking about food, Review.com has decided to investigate what is actually in our food and kind of regretted the decision.
Against the advice of most, Review.com has scrutinized the FDA document called "The Defect Levels Handbook". Well, it is a fact that it's impossible to eliminate all the contaminants, may it be natural or otherwise, from every food collected. However, to learn the safety guidelines when it comes to the amount of contaminants allowed in our food was definitely a great revelation.
So ready yourselves, here are the 10 gross things that FDA approved to be in your food:
1. Broccoli
An average of 60 or more aphids (plant louse), thrips (insects having usually four narrow wings fringed with hairs, and many of which are major pests of cereals and fruit trees) or mites is allowed per 100 grams of frozen broccoli.
2. Brussels Sprouts
Has the same restrictions as above but the level is much stricter. Only 30 of those pests are allowed for Brussels sprouts. No mentions as to why Brussels sprouts have much stricter threshold over broccoli.
3. Mushrooms
It is allowed by the FDA to have 20 maggots of any size in your canned and dried mushrooms per 100 grams of drained mushrooms or 15 grams of the dried variety.
4. Pineapple
It is still accepted to eat canned pineapple if there are molds as long as it doesn't take 20 percent of the whole content. FDA says is still safe.
5. Ginger
It is accepted for gingers to contain 3 milligrams of "mammalian excreta" in every pound. Yes, that's poop.
6. Potato Chips
FDA also mentioned about snack products like potato chips. An average of 5 percent of rot is allowed inside your favourite snack.
7. Wheat Flour
Now this one is quite disturbing. FDA's threshold for insect filth in flour is an average of 75 percent or more of insect fragments for every 50 grams. For rodent filth, an average of 1 or more hairs per 50 grams is accepted.
8. Pitted Olives
Manufacturers can still get away if olives are left with pits. A 1.3 percent margin of error is accepted. Well, not as gross others admittedly.
9. Fig Paste
Per 100 grams of fig paste, it is considered unsafe if it contains 13 or more insect heads in each of 2 or more subsamples. But what if you find the insects headless?
10. Apple Butter
An average of 5 or more, whole or equivalent insects are allowed per 100 grams of apple butter. This does not include mites, aphids, thrips or scale insects.
So these are just 10 of the many things that FDA allows in our food. Bon appetit!
