You're eating 2 lbs. of bugs in your food annually!

Recently Ohio University released a fact sheet stating the average American unknowingly eats up to two pounds of insects in their food each year.

“They’re actually pretty healthy,” claims Dr. Philip Nixon, an entomologist at the University of Illinois. You have to wonder if he said that while reaching for a bowl of french fried grasshoppers on his desk.

Well, maybe eating the creepy crawlers are arguably healthy, but according to Judy Tidwell, an economic service specialist at a state social services office in the Southeast United States, even trace amounts of insect parts that have been ground into food items can adversely affect those suffering from allergies and respiratory ailments.

“We throw away the products that we see are infested,” she explained. “Just think how many we consume because we didn’t notice they were infested. Ingesting insect material may cause stomach disorders, as well as allergic reactions.”

No doubt.

The yummy Cochineal beetle

The crisp, dehydrated bodies of the female cochineal beetle make Cochineal extract and carmine. The beetle juice is used to dye food and added to color drinks and cosmetics like lipstick and eyeliner. The insect dye can create various shades of red, orange, pink and purple…even some ice creams and fruit juices also contain the extracted beetle pulp.

The FDA ‘Food Defect Action’ list

In case you’re wondering what other foods you eat that contain insects, here’s an abbreviated list from the U.S. Food and Drug Agency. It’s complied from the FDA’s Food Defect Action Level list.

It’s good to know that the federal government has set limits on how much insect parts you unknowingly pop into your mouth each year.

Chocolate and chocolate liquor

Insect filth: Average is 60 or more insect fragments per 100 grams of chocolate. But food samples containing 90 or more insect fragments are deemed absolutely acceptable. If too many parts are in that creamy chocolate bar you’re eating it might crawl out of your hand. That wouldn’t be too cool.

A Drosophila fly tending its larvae

Canned citrus fruit juices

Insects and pupae (eggs): Five or more Drosophila and other fly eggs per 250 ml. or one or more fly maggots per 250 ml.

Macaroni and other noodle products

Insect content: An average of 225 insect fragments or more per 225 grams is permitted.

Fun fact: Mites must be pulverized.

These beauties are in peanut butter

Peanut butter

Insect content: Averages of 30 or more insect fragments per 100 grams are quite permissible.

Fun fact: It doesn’t matter if you buy the smooth or crunchy variety.

A tomato ‘meat’ worm

Tomato ketchup ‘meat’

No federal guidelines exist for ‘meat’ content in tomato ketchup, also called catsup. The meat in question are ground up, bloated green worms. It’s said the brand with the lowest amount is Heinz. Many of the brands with the most meat are store label brands.

Fun fact: Canned tomatoes, tomato paste, sauce, spaghetti sauces and soups also contain the meat.

Weevils like this end up in your gut

Wheat flour

Weevils: Average of 75 or more insect fragments per 50 grams of wheat.

Fun fact: Ever wonder what a weevil tastes like? You shouldn’t. You’ve been eating them all your life.

Unless you stop eating, there’s not much you can do to avoid gulping down insects. At least you can’t feel them wriggling around in your stomach.

As Dr. Manfred Kroger, a professor of food science at Pennsylvania State University observes, “Let’s face it, much of our food comes from nature, and nature is not perfect.”

Logical, but far from comforting. Leave it to a doctor…

Other ‘delicacies’ in your food

Beaver anal glands rev up raspberry candy

Castoreum is used to heighten the flavor of raspberry candy. It’s derived from the anal glands of beavers.

Lac beetle juice in candy and sprinkles

Some of the glistening candy coatings of hard candies and the colorful sprinkles bakers shake onto cupcakes, cookies and sundaes are made from the viscous jelly-like ooze of female lac beetles. Non-bakers call it shellac and use it as a varnish on wood.

Bubble gum sheep goo

A sticky, oily goo inside wool is harvested to make lanolin. Often termed a “gum base,” it finds its way into bubble and chewing gums.

Human hair and/or duck feathers in bread

L-cysteine or cystine is used in some commercially made breads including bagels. It’s made from processed duck feathers, or even human hair! The substance is used as a dough conditioner and mostly used in kosher wheat recipes and halal.

Processed calf stomachs in cheese

Many cheeses sold throughout the world contain a substance called “rennet.” Rennet is the fourth stomach of a baby cow. Although some European countries label those cheeses that contain it–in deference to vegetarians who avoid meat products–most countries do not. The U.S. is one that doesn’t label the presence of processed cow stomach in cheese.

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© Copyright AYM Communications, 2011.