What If #9

What if you found an insect in your packaged food? What if you found pieces of rodents in your food? What would you do? Most people would probably panic and stop eating their food. I think even throwing the food away is a decent assumption. An even more unsettling idea would be to find feces in your food. I think that most would be completely dissatisfied and disgusted. As a culture, we would be completely grossed out by the thought of someone eating parts of an insect, insect excretions, or rodent filth. However, according to the Food and Drug Administration all of these things are acceptable in the food that we consume. The FDA regulates all foods and drugs in the United States. They ensure food safety and consumption safety. If their task is to protect people from harmful agents or things that do not belong in our food, then why do they consider certain proportions of these filths to be permissible? There are many things that can still be packaged with our food. Some of these "things" are insect filth, rodent filth, excreta, animal hairs, rot, mold, and parasitic cysts just to name a few. Each defect, as the FDA calls it, is able to be processed with food if the defect is less than the established proportion. They call the proportion the action level meaning if the amount of contamination from the defect is larger than the proportion, then the product is considered ruined. The FDA's website has a list of all the defects that can affect a product. There are many defects listed. The website displays a list of foods in alphabetical order with the possible defects for each food. When I read the list, it made me feel sick. I understand that every contamination cannot be completely eliminated, but the thought still makes a person squirm in their seat. I thought about the list, and it made me connect the Japanese puffer fish to it. The fish is considered a delicacy, but it is extremely poisonous. The way it is served and ate is raw, but the chefs have to cut all around the stomach, which is the part being eaten. There is no way to get rid of all the poison, so the person consuming the fish will experience a tingling sensation on the tongue. However, if there is too much remaining poison, it can kill the person.