When I was a sophomore or junior in college, my western civilization teacher would choose sometimes to abandon all relevant topics and… babble. One day, somehow, the topic of discussion moved towards vegetarianism, and then to bug parts (the transition seems logical enough, I suppose). Anyway, he told us that a regular hershey bar contains, on average, nine bug parts per unit. I suppose it makes sense? I have to ask though, does anyone know where he might have received this information? Where could I find out more about bug parts (and candy!)?
I keep searching the straight dope archives in hopes of finding something to do with my question. If anyone can point me towards an answer, I would greatly appreciate it.
merci,
There are federal standards that put an upper limit on the permissible number of rodent hairs (and fecal matter?) in food products. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were similar rules about bug parts.
On a tangent, Cecil did a column called Is some candy coated with beetle juice?
You can get some info like that from the government. this is a quite interesting read.
I believe the government considers so many contaminants per ounce of food as acceptsble, like roach eggs, rat hairs, frog shit, etc. The theory being that no matter how clean a food processing factory is, some of this stuff may still get into our food, and small amounts won’t hurt us so…
Or maybe he’s taliking about how certain insects are used for color and texture in food (like beetles being used for food coloring).
I remember munching on Doritos, and being told that the reddish coloring (annato) was made out of bugs. Which is true, by the way. I just shrugged and said “Well, bugs are high in protien” and kept right on munching.
I’m not really worried about bug parts in my food. It’s the rat shit that I worry about.
I’m not sure why, but I find that line absolutely hilarious.
mblackwell’s link says under chocolate:
So one ounce of chocolate can have about 15 or 20 insect fragments. Your professor was probably trying to shield you from the ugly truth when he reported only 9 fragments per chocolate bar.
Candy? Feh. Think about what’s in your wheat products! Any type of bread, pasta, etc., will contain a healthy assortment of insect fragments. (What, you think all those bugs in Kansas jump off the wheat just before the John Deere gets to it?)
We all eat insects everyday and live to tell about it. I just try not to think about it. Of course, now I’m wondering about rat shit. Thanks, Thea. 
i’d heard the stuff about rat poop in food! (specifically, in peanut butter. my hardcore activist friend daniel used to use it as one of his main reasons for going vegetarian. and, i think we can all see the humor in that.)
thanks for the info on bug parts in candy. it seemed like he cited some book that he’d been reading. kind of a straight dope-ish sort of thing. if anyone remembers reading about it, and what book you might have found it in, i’d appreciate any feedback.
thanks!
- celine
Consumer reports is the thing to read about these things. I rember one article about chocolate milk flavoring. One of the things for comparison was number of bug parts per serving.
And after you’ve read mblackwell’s link, you can quiz yourself here