How many rodent hairs are acceptable in macaroni? The FDA has the answer

Read on an empty stomach

Let’s face facts…the less a food is processed the healthier it’s going to be. Less processing means less added sugar, less preservatives, and less bugs.

Yes, bugs. More on that in a moment.

In the e-mail I sent you yesterday we saw how nearly every food product that comes in a can is in jeopardy of being tainted with bisphenol A (BPA), a toxic compound.

In that case, the contaminant is put there intentionally. But there are all sorts of ways food can become tainted unexpectedly. And that often calls for a process that the FDA and food industry insiders refer to as “reconditioning.”

Trust me, you won’t believe some of the reconditioning steps the FDA allows food producers.

And I’m serious when I say this: Read the following on an empty stomach. You’ll thank me later.

Keeping count of insect fragments

At its least invasive, reconditioning is benign. A batch of ice cream, for instance, that’s been mislabeled can be blended in with larger batches of chocolate ice cream. Consumers can’t taste the difference and the mislabeled batch doesn’t have to be thrown away.

Ah…if only mixing of ice cream flavors was the full extent of reconditioning.

But of course it isn’t. Here’s an entry from a handbook of FDA guidelines for levels of food defects. In the glossary of the handbook, this is the definition of “contamination”: “Addition of foreign material, (e.g., dirt, hair, excreta, non-invasive insects, machinery mold) to a product.”

Excreta? None for me, thanks! And I don’t know about you, but I consider ANY insect in my food to be “invasive.”

But those insects are there. For instance, when dried fruits are exposed to radiation to kill bacteria and parasites, live insects in the food are killed. However, they’re not necessarily removed from the food. Ugh!

According to an MSNBC report, here are a few of the specifics of what the FDA allows when foods are reconditioned…

* An average of 225 insect fragments OR 4.5 rodent hairs per 8 ounces of macaroni [I wonder how often a rodent leaves behind HALF a hair?]

* An average count of 15 percent mold is considered acceptable in canned cranberry sauce

* And (look away now if you’re feeling squeamish) in a half-ounce of dried mushrooms or 3.5 ounces of drained canned mushrooms, an average of 20 or more maggots “of any size” are allowed

William Correll, the FDA acting director of compliance, assures MSNBC that reconditioning is strictly rejected when food is adulterated in an unacceptable way.

For instance, one seafood processing company with “faulty bathroom practices” had a problem with E. coli contamination. Heat treatment would have killed the bacteria, but — as Correll puts it — it wouldn’t have solved the core problem.

It’s good to know the FDA knows when to say, “NO!”

But what’s so deeply troubling about reconditioning practices is that the FDA can only inspect a small fraction of food processing plants. So what goes on when FDA officials are not around?

The mind reels!

Choosing foods with a minimum of processing is the only way to go.

Sources: 
“Defect Levels Handbook” Food and Drug Administration, fda.gov

“A second chance for faulty food? FDA calls it ‘reconditioning'” JoNel Aleccia, MSNBC, 11/23/11, vitals.msnbc.msn.com