# Rat hairs per million **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 19, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rat-hairs-per-million/290952 "2005-02-19T22:35:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rat-hairs-per-million/290952/1 "2005-02-19T22:35:44Z")
Do these crazy-sounding federal food regulations really exist? Can I read them for myself? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rat-hairs-per-million/290952/2 "2005-02-19T22:43:07Z")
I’d like mine with not so much rat in it. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rat-hairs-per-million/290952/3 "2005-02-19T22:45:35Z")
I’ve been wondering the same thing about a “maggots per can of mushrooms” tale that I perpetuated for a while before realizing it might not be true - but can’t find evidence one way or the other. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rat-hairs-per-million/290952/4 "2005-02-19T22:47:01Z")
[Here](http://www.usda.gov/gipsa/reference-library/directives/9060-2.pdf) is an interesting document. “Rodent pellets: two or more rodent pellets per 1,000 grams or 9 mg or more rodent excreta pellets and/or fragments of rodent excreta pellets per 1,000 grams.” I can’t speak for everyone, but I prefer the number of rodent pellets in my food to be “fewer than one.” ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rat-hairs-per-million/290952/5 "2005-02-19T22:51:09Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > I’ve been wondering the same thing about a “maggots per can of mushrooms” tale that I perpetuated for a while before realizing it might not be true - but can’t find evidence one way or the other. Oh, I wish I hadn’t looked again… I seem to have found the methodology for determining that the maggot level of canned mushrooms is within acceptable limits: > [@](#): > > 5.3.2 Determine the number of whole maggots greater than or equal to 2 mm in size and add to this value the number of whole maggots greater than or equal to 2 mm in the proportionate amount of drained liquid (from Sect. 5.2.4) (for canned mushrooms only). Calculate as in Sect. 5.3.1. [From here](http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/food-aliment/mh-dm/mhe-dme/compendium/volume_4/e_exflp1703.html) (And yeah, I realize that they’re not going to kill me, but the ick factor is just too much for me. Sometimes, ignorance really is bliss.) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rat-hairs-per-million/290952/6 "2005-02-19T23:01:24Z")
Yes, it’s for real and is just an acknowledgement of the basic fact that it is really really difficult to prepare food from natural products that is entirely devoid of foreign bodies; in order to guarantee that the mushrooms were entirely free of maggots, for example, you’d have to minutely dissect them all, which would render them unsuitable for, say, adding to a pizza, so what you do is _minutely dissect a representative sample_ and try to attain the level of contamination to a reasonable degree of confidence. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rat-hairs-per-million/290952/7 "2005-02-19T23:10:55Z")
Obviously, if the standards were so picky as to totally exclude the yucky things, food would be much more expensive than it now is. Nevertheless, it is disconcerting to know that a certain number of rat turds will pass muster. With my luck, I’ll get the portion with the rodent surprise in it.