You Eat 1-2 Pounds of Flies, Maggots, and Mites Each Year

Charming Op-Ed in the NYT today about the acceptable levels of contaminants the FDA allows in our vittles. According to the author and in fact according to the FDA itself, it's truly possible that "you’re probably ingesting one to two pounds of flies, maggots and mites each year without knowing it." That's because there's a certain quantity of infestation or contamination which the FDA will allow per gram or what have you. You'll be happy to know that most of the contamination is only "aesthetic" in nature because really, what harm can come of eating an "average of 475 or more insect fragments [... or an ] average of 2 or more rodent hairs per 50 grams" of fresh pepper with your handmade pasta. Your pasta which may have fresh oregano containing an "average of 5% or more insect infested and/or moldy pieces by weight" and/or an "average of 1 mg or more mammalian excreta per pound." Not that you're counting.

REFERENCES:
The Maggots in Your Mushrooms, NYT, by E. J. LEVY, February 12, 2009
FDA Booklet The Food Defect Action Levels - Levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods that present no health hazards for humans