JustErin said:

what your doctor tells you and what you see on TV is WRONG

Ribbed4UrPleasure said:

I don't know WHY, but for some reason, I BELIEVE you.

SureThing said:

I eat a good amount of fish and seafood and so this discussion is making me a tad queasy. Not to say one shouldn't be circumspect about the quality of one's food and its origins, but no food is pristine, or devoid of some sort of toxin or pollutant or another. Too much knowledge can be a nauseating thing.

Recently I'd read that the occasional crunchiness one might enounter while eating a Fig Newton is actually pieces of wasps which are necessary for fig pollination and can't be completely removed during processing.

I won't even go into the possible extra ingredients that might be found in a bar of chocolate...

WillyWonka said:

monkey crap?

WillyWonka said:

Fuck, I have to know!

Ribbed4UrPleasure said:

Only in gourmet chocolates.

WillyWonka said:

it makes it much more delectable,
its the secret ingredient in all Wonka bars.






.
[Edited 3/26/07 10:56am]

WillyWonka said:

Those are fig seeds! Fig anything has that weird crunch. Fig seeds are tiny and delicate and have that weird texture.

FunkMistress said:

Anyway,

I always clean my shit before I eat it.

Did ya'll know there's a red food coloring called (I think) carmine that is made by steaming beetles and extracting the 'juice'?

BLEH!!

What's more, there is no regulation currently that says that have to name it as such, so it's hard to know for sure what it's used in. They can currently call it 'natural' or 'artificial' color on an ingredient label. It's used in things like yogurt and fruit juices.

I HATE KNOWING THESE THINGS!!

CarrieMpls said:

PS - See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine

CalhounSq said:

Due to the fermentation process involved in the making of chocolate, it's practically impossible to manufacture without some type of insect and/or animal contaminant. There are, of course, rodents and such found in factories as well which contribute to the impurities.

The FDA allows for a certain amount of rodent hairs, fecal matter and insect parts per ounce.

CarrieMpls said:

P.S., by the way:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine

WillyWonka said:

oh, I thought you were talking about just chocolate.
This goes for all manufactured / processed food.
Which that is the key right there, manufactured / processed foods.


.
[Edited 3/26/07 11:14am]

FunkMistress said:

The occasional crunch in a Fig Newton may well be actually "seed" and not visible, tangible pieces of wasp, but dead wasps are found in figs and are impossible to remove from the fruit being processed. So technically, your Fig Newton does contain a certain percentage of dead wasps and the possibility is there that a piece of two of wasp will remain large enough to create a noticeable crunch.

From MSN.com: "The Food and Drug Administration allows for fig paste to have up to 13 insect heads per 100 grams. Because the fig bears its flowers inside the fruit and relies upon wasps to crawl inside to pollinate them, many wasps end up harvested along with the figs. Even with rigorous cleaning and sorting of the figs, it would be nearly impossible to remove every single wasp from inside the figs. So, the crunch is mostly from the fig's seeds, but there may be a wasp head or two in the paste as well."

WillyWonka said:

only wasp head, no wasp ass?

WillyWonka said:

Why does this bother people so much?

This and the carmine. That really cracks me up. I mean, I don't even eat meat but it doesn't really bother me much. People that eat PIGS are all up in arms that they might have ingested some bug juice.

FunkMistress said:

I found cat crotch in my general taos chicken the other day.

I also found some dog ass in my Wendy's chilli.

YUM!

FunkMistress said:

I was merely contributing trivia to the subject at hand. The idea of insect parts and wasps carcasses being in my food doesn't much bug me. Admittedly, consuming an insect whole doesn't whet my appetite but knowing I likely ingest one (or pieces of one) here and there doesn't keep me up nights.

It's estimated the average person ingests a total of 6 or 8 spiders a year from various sources. E. coli is found on many foods no matter how carefully washed or prepared. The air if filled with microscopic mites which are inhaled every day. The world isn't a sanitary, pure place, and it's not possible to live a completely contaminant-free existence.

Anyway I find rather a perverse enjoyment in hearing of the myriad revolting substances found in foods. It's like peeking at full-color pictures of rashes and growths in medical books.

CarrieMpls said:

I remember when they announced that and it was all over the news. Before, no one ever told you what "carmine" was, but then all of the sudden they were required to tell people where it actually came from.

I think I even did a thread about it.

I am from Louisiana....home of some of the best seafood restaurants and recipies worldwide...I eat all of it...have eaten all kinds of fish and crustaceans for the better part of my entire life, and I have yet to develop ANY kinds of physical maladies connected to the bacteria and toxins in seafood....and as a requirement of my job I have complete physicals done every year....so maybe my constitution is stronger or I have an immunity to the bad, but I can't imagine not eating seafood.....its a staple of the true creole diet....

...and for the record, boiled crawfish (crawdad for you northerners....) are the bomb.....

This mofo looks infested with parasite.

reneGade20 ever here of noodling.

StarMon said:

Not until my goofy ass went to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noodling

reneGade20 said:

don't feel like the lone ranger.. my goofy ass actually watched a documentary about it.
I was nursing a cold with a Bacardi prescription.. givin' by my local liquor doctor. Flipping thru the TV, landed on PBS and saw these idiots using their arms as bait to catch huge ass catfish.
[Edited 3/26/07 16:12pm]

StarMon said:

When that happens to me (I usually get stuck on the surgery documentaries...) I often wonder whats worse...being sick or that I get transfixed on random shit on TV.....

Funny story about shrimp: my one aunt REFUSES to eat them because, according to her, they eat junk off the ocean floor. In fact, she calls them "bottom feeders". I guess a young girl or whoever that my aunt knows heard my aunt talking this way about shrimp, and now the girl also refuses to eat them.
[Edited 3/26/07 16:57pm]