To Eat Bugs or Not To Eat Bugs: Not As Much of a Choice as You'd Like

About 2 months ago, my loving brother after taking a course in food handling, informed me that there are bugs and bug parts in almost everything we eat. He told me the food product with the highest allowed amount of (bug) was peanut butter. I used to eat peanut butter and rather enjoyed it on a cracker. But after he informed me of the extra protein peanut butter contains, I just couldn't bring myself to eat anything that contained peanut butter.

My family thought I was rather silly for denying myself the pleasure of a Butterfinger, and tried to convince me that my brother was just trying to get a rise out of me. I did consider the fact that he was always trying to pull something over on me, even with his insistence that the information about the bugs allowed in our food was true. You know how big brothers are, always attempting to aggravate and upset their little sisters. But still, the thought kept creeping into my head, what if he was telling the truth?

After about a month of having a sick to my stomach feeling every time I heard the word peanut butter, and the wise voices of my family telling me it was only a joke, I decided to take it upon myself to investigate some of the foods I liked and ate on a regular basis. I would find out for myself if the rumor was fact or fiction. Believe it or not, this is what I found.

Food Defects Acton Levels. Yes, there really is such a thing. The Department of Health and Human Services has set this standard. These standards are set on the basis of no hazard to health. They claim that there is no way, nor has there ever been a way, to keep all the bugs, mouse hair, feces, and who knows what else, out of anything that is grown in a field. This snippet of information was found at: http://www.uky.edu

The Department of Health and Human Services also claim that the amount of bugs and bug parts that are allowed in certain foods, in no way can harm our bodies when consumed. I have to assume that they are assuming that not one person on earth is allergic to any type of bug that gets into the food during processing. That got me to thinking about food allergies. Are those who have food allergies really allergic to the food, or just the bugs that got in the food?

Upon further investigation I found this information in several other sites and they all proclaim the same information about the Food Defects Action Levels. Some sites will give percentages of gross things that are in certain foods that we eat, and some give what foods are allowed the highest content, which from what I found was peanut butter. All you have to do is type in ' are there bugs in my food' into any search engine and you can find all sorts of disgusting information.

I almost stopped eating all together. What do you eat, or what part of something do you eat, can you think of, that doesn't have something to do with being grown in a field. The crackers I used to put my peanut butter on, the bread for my sandwich, my cereal, the flour I use to cook and bake with, the spices I use to season my food, the list goes on and on. I used to eat oatmeal every morning, I used to eat wheat bread, I used to eat pizza, I used to eat canned soup. Have you ever opened up a bag of those noodles that cook in 3 minutes? Ever saw any pod shaped things floating in the water? Even worse, ever seen anything floating that had legs? Did you know there are eggs on a lot of things that you bring into your house and they actually hatch while sitting in your cabinet? Ever look at the expiration date? Is that date really telling us that the product won't taste good after that date, or is it letting us know the incubation period. And where do those pesky gnats come from?

Information I also found was to decrease or prevent our unknown consumption of bugs, rat hair, and feces, the growers would have to put more chemicals on the food during the growing and harvesting process to actually keep the bugs and who knows what else, off the the food. Makes me wonder about the food we see on the grocery store shelves now that say Organically Grown. More protein on these items? So it is a catch 22, eat the bugs or don't eat the bugs, that is the question.

If you like chocolate, anything that has tomato in it, anything that is canned, any kind of pasta, anything in a jar, anything fresh or anything frozen, I encourage you NOT to look up this information. Don't look at your oatmeal, just eat it. Don't look at those dark spots on your chips. Don't look at anything, just put it in your mouth, chew and swallow.

If you have found odd things that you don't think should be in your food, I think we all would like to hear about it. Well, maybe not, but at least we could be on the lookout.

Bon Appetit