FDA Allows Bugs In Your Food: Food Must Reach 'Defect Action Levels' To Be Labeled Unsafe

Your food has to reach "Food Defect Action Levels" that have been created by the FDA before the regulator will take action against products with foreign matter. In other words, there is a level of grossness food has to get to before they do anything about it.

Simply put, there has to be a certain amount of bugs or bug parts in your food before it's deemed unsafe, but a little bit is totally fine. For example, manufacturers can't allow more than 225 bug parts in 225 grams of pasta. Any less than 225 parts in that batch is ok for the FDA.

Most of the time, this does not mean these foods are unsafe and in order to be on the list of these foods, the "defects" (what the FDA calls bugs and rodents) have to have been found to cause no health hazards.

Realistically it's impossible to eliminate all bugs from food grown outdoors, no matter how small the manufacturer -- but there is a certain ick-factor involved with the idea that there could be maggots in your food in any amount or form.

On the other hand, pesticides and preservatives used to kill bugs and add shelf life to produce are much more harmful to consumers health than a few bug parts.

What do you think? Watch the video above and comment below.

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Comments

[Christina-Xena]

10:29 PM on 03/22/2012

Dried bug parts: "Please boil to rehydrate. Salt to taste"

[matt gordon]

04:53 PM on 03/22/2012

The FDA sold what little integrity it had left when it acquiesced to Donald Rumsfeld and approved aspartame for a food additive, even though it killed the majority of the laboratory rats during testing. Rumsfeld was head of Searle-Monsanto chemical giant for a few years before serving in several administrations. Rumsfeld - aspartame - carcinogenic food sweetener FDA approval when president of Searle-Monsanto. Rumsfeld was at Monsanto when the company produced dioxin/agent orange defoliator used widely in the Vietnam war. 40-plus years later, agent orange is still causing dreadful birth defects and stillborn/miscarriages.

As Sec of Defense he was in charge of US military using lots of depleted uranium on our ammo for its ability to penetrate armor. After the bullet hits the target and penetrates armor plating, the residual DU dust is airborne. A nifty chemical, DU remains toxic for many years depending on the environment /climate.

[Eidolas]

04:37 PM on 03/22/2012

Given a choice between bugs or pink slime, I'll take the bugs.

[Christina-Xena]

10:33 PM on 03/22/2012

I'll take the pink slime. Besides I can use the connective tissue as cheap floss.

[acarioti]

02:27 PM on 03/22/2012

What? Nobody knew this already? I read about insect-parts levels permitted by FDA years ago. Rodent droppings are ok too. You all have been eating them since you were born. Not to worry.

[Hypocrites are Watching]

11:27 AM on 03/23/2012

yea I have known this for like 25 years or more

[pragmaticalpaula]

12:59 AM on 03/26/2012

Me too, my brothers friend worked at Campbell's, he tested the tomato soup vats for rat parts. I haven't had canned soup since he told us. That was more than 30 years ago.

[karmabug]

02:15 PM on 03/22/2012

My favorite part of this video was that there was a Campbell's Soup commercial immediately after it. lol!

[used2be]

01:29 PM on 03/22/2012

When the FDA passes a drug for sale on the open market and it causes great physical harm to people, like Cylebrex, why can't we sue them? They allowed it.

[Christina-Xena]

10:27 PM on 03/22/2012

Seems we also have bug parts in comment sections.

[burthurt]

12:38 PM on 03/22/2012

Protiennnnnn Yum Yum Eat um up.

[sstp525]

11:16 AM on 03/22/2012

Anybody here ever eat a cicada? They're crunchy, and sure, if you eat it alive, you get the juicy guts...but, overall, not that bad. (When I was a kid, my friend bet me five dollars to eat one)

Yeah, the idea of eating a bug may make you cringe, but it's not going to kill you. Ever try chocolate covered ants? It tastes like chocolate raisins to me. It may be disgusting to hear, but it's a natural food source, technically.
And for everyone complaing about the FDA, just be thankful we have them. Sure, they may be flawed, but so is everything else; that doesn't mean lets get rid of them because they don't work. The government doesn't always work perfectly, but we'd have anarchy without it. Without the FDA, who knows what short cuts food industries would start using to make their products even more cheap. I think a few little bug legs would be the least of our worries.

[phoenixrising8259]

10:37 AM on 03/22/2012

I think I was told this in the third grade, the sixth grade, and the ninth grade. It's a gross factor, sure, but...well, I can't see the buggies. So most of the time, I manage not to think about it. Because it's better that way. Thanks for reminding me, Huffpost. I will now go stare sadly at my cereal and shake my head.

[rtgmath]

10:34 AM on 03/22/2012

Heh. We get icked out so easily. We are a part of nature. Even breathing means you get bug parts inside you! Farm living is forgotten!

Of course, food prep should be as clean and safe as possible. No poisons added. Imagine adding copper sulfate to canned peaches to make them bright yellow? It was done before the FDA existed, and people got sick and died from adulterated foods.

True, the FDA is underfunded, but it still performs a valuable service to protect our food supply.

[threepercent]

10:15 AM on 03/22/2012

this is because they do not care one bit about us little people. You can bet that the 'elite' don't have bugs, pink slime, GE corn and soy, etc in their food.

[George McAulay]

10:15 AM on 03/22/2012

Bear Grylls loves eating them

[MadMan Writer]

10:00 AM on 03/22/2012

Bugs may not look healthy or make your mouth water, but they probably are more healthy than a lot of artificial stuff we consume. That being said, I think I'd rather prefer to be ignorant on what is in my food.

[RML 1]

09:59 AM on 03/22/2012

Since it's impossible to avoid, and this isn't new news anyway, and many insects are protein rich, just embrace it. I use lots of products with "Carmine/red #40" on purpose, it's organic! You can do some research on the different types of food to see what kind and how much bugs are in a certain product. For example: if eating cockroaches bothers you, simply switch to grinding your own whole coffee beans. The ground coffee and cockroaches are one in the same. (I know this and I still drink ground coffee, fair trade coffee whenever possible of course). ha ha

[cammerconcepts]

09:43 AM on 03/22/2012

After reading an article like this, it makes me laugh when I read all of these things that the left says when one of the Republicans say that they are going to do away with a certain part of the government. Do we really WANT departments that will allow this to happen?? Wake up people.

[Kid Notorious]

09:54 AM on 03/22/2012

Allow what to happen? Food isn't sterile my friend. All of it comes from the ground or is nourished by something that comes from the ground often times helped to grow via fecal matter. Then it's packed in unsterile environments and shipped in unsterile containers. You expect food to be come from microchip facilities?

[cammerconcepts]

10:22 AM on 03/22/2012

That's the point. The Republicans don't want to do away with useful departments, they want departments that really work! The FDA obviously doesn't.

[MadMan Writer]

09:55 AM on 03/22/2012

Um, less regulations is a Republican thing, so imagine them allowing more into our food, because "Such strict regulations hurt our economy."

[cammerconcepts]

10:25 AM on 03/22/2012

Um, no pal, stop drinking the MSNBC Kool-Aid. The Republicans want departments that actually do their jobs right!