Does FDA Allow Cockroaches and Rat Hair in Chocolate?
​[Thursday, February 20, 2020]
There is a video circulating on social media claiming that FDA allows significant amounts of filthy content in common foods such as cockroach parts, rat hair, and animal excreta in chocolate, mold and insect eggs in orange juice, insect larvae in corn, and so on. There is some truth in this statement, but it is partial truth as it does not explain the rationale behind this federal policy, and that it is not just FDA but practically all agencies World-wide that accept that the food grown and processed in nature could and does have contaminants that cannot be removed 100%. FDA’s policy is based on the practical reality that “it is economically impractical to grow, harvest, or process raw products that are totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects.” This is similar to FDA approving drugs with known side effects but clear benefits to the patients despite the expected adverse effects. FDA’s policies for food are based on the same balance of risk and benefit, as for drugs and any of the other products it regulates. As pointed out in the FDA’s Food Defect Levels Handbook, “it is incorrect to assume that because the FDA has an established defect action level for a food commodity, the food manufacturer need only stay just below that level. The defect levels do not represent an average of the defects that occur in any of the products--the averages are actually much lower.” Further, regulatory action may be taken on a case by case basis if FDA deems a product to be dangerous or adulterated whether or not a give food product exceeds the “permitted” levels. Now, it may not be sufficient for the paranoid because who wants to eat chocolate knowing it may have rat hair and cockroach parts, but we have to live with the reality that every food grown in nature has some pests, that most of the trace amounts left over after processing are harmless, and that we have been consuming the same foods for ever without thinking about it. Ironically, food absent of pesticides and insecticides probably have even higher levels of unwanted “ingredients”. We need to be careful about what we eat. If a given food causes allergies or unexplained negative effects, we should avoid it. Yes, FDA does allow things in our food supply that we would rather not know about but it’s all Ok. Now go eat your chocolate.