If you were shocked to hear that a peanut plant in Georgia and Texas were closed due tainted processing and 9 deaths (salmonella) you shouldn't be. Although food outbreaks like this are usually rare, contaminants in our processed foods aren't rare. The FDA prefers to call this filth "natural contaminants", and actually allows a certain amount of these contaminants in our food. That would include maggots, fly eggs, rodent hairs, insects as well as insect excreta. For instance, tomato juice may legally contain 5 or more fly eggs and one or more maggots per 100 grams (equal to a small glass). An 18 oz. peanut butter jar may legally contain 145 bug parts or 5 or more rodent hairs. This means that in one years time you probably ingest 1 or 2 lbs of flies, maggots and rodent parts per year without knowing it. The FDA states these are just "aesthetic" issues. So my question would be, What are you going to eat today now that you now, more of the same stuff out of a box or jar, or more fresh fruits and veggies? You could just repress all this information, I mean it's only "aesthetic" right?
Statistics from the FDA were quoted in the New York Times (E.J. Levy)
