Peanut Butter
Peanut Butter
The average American consumes up to three pounds of peanut butter annually, but do they know that they are eating more than just peanut butter? When you make that peanut butter and jelly sandwich you use a few general ingredients like; Bread, fruit preserves, crunchy or smooth peanut butter and according to the FDA’s handbook “Food Defect Action Levels” the acceptable levels of insect parts and rodent hairs allowed in your peanut butter. Consumers should be more informed about the limits of pesticides and the FDA’s regulations pertaining to peanut butter.
According to (Examiner.com) the FDA approves for there to be an average of thirty of more insect fragments per one-hundred grams of peanut butter. These insect fragments find their way into your peanut butter in two ways. One way being during pre-harvest or post-harvest. Another way is during processing. Peanuts are unique as to that they are not nuts at all, they are actually legumes. They flower above ground but the peanuts themselves grow below ground. Another interesting fact about peanuts is that they are the most pesticide saturated food in America containing more than 183 residues representing seventeen different formulations on their environmental metabolites. (Philly.com) Many consumers think “But wait, I don’t eat organic peanut butter, weren’t all those pesticides supposed to rid my peanut butter of bugs?” Sadly this is a common misconception followed by the statement “Why would the FDA allow such a thing?”
Thus, it is stated on (Suit101.com/FDA) that “it is economically impractical to grow, harvest, or process raw products that are totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects.” Therefore, the FDA has listed different food defects in a booklet called “Food Defect Action Levels.” To further elaborate why the FDA has the power to decide what the acceptable level of foreign contaminants can be in your food is listed under title 21, Code of Federal
The average American consumes up to three pounds of peanut butter annually, but do they know that they are eating more than just peanut butter? When you make that peanut butter and jelly sandwich you use a few general ingredients like; Bread, fruit preserves, crunchy or smooth peanut butter and according to the FDA’s handbook “Food Defect Action Levels” the acceptable levels of insect parts and rodent hairs allowed in your peanut butter. Consumers should be more informed about the limits of pesticides and the FDA’s regulations pertaining to peanut butter.
According to (Examiner.com) the FDA approves for there to be an average of thirty of more insect fragments per one-hundred grams of peanut butter. These insect fragments find their way into your peanut butter in two ways. One way being during pre-harvest or post-harvest. Another way is during processing. Peanuts are unique as to that they are not nuts at all, they are actually legumes. They flower above ground but the peanuts themselves grow below ground. Another interesting fact about peanuts is that they are the most pesticide saturated food in America containing more than 183 residues representing seventeen different formulations on their environmental metabolites. (Philly.com) Many consumers think “But wait, I don’t eat organic peanut butter, weren’t all those pesticides supposed to rid my peanut butter of bugs?” Sadly this is a common misconception followed by the statement “Why would the FDA allow such a thing?”
Thus, it is stated on (Suit101.com/FDA) that “it is economically impractical to grow, harvest, or process raw products that are totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects.” Therefore, the FDA has listed different food defects in a booklet called “Food Defect Action Levels.” To further elaborate why the FDA has the power to decide what the acceptable level of foreign contaminants can be in your food is listed under title 21, Code of Federal