You're Probably Eating 1-2 Pounds Of Bugs A Year Without Realizing It

This news might make you stop craving chocolate entirely.


We've all heard stories about the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowing for a few bugs in packaged foods, but learning just how much might turn your stomach. It turns out most of us are getting a little extra protein than we realized. To the tune of 1 to 2 pounds of things like flies, maggots, and mites a year.

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The FDA refers to this as "non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects," which refers to things like maggots, rodent hairs, and insect fragments.

According to the FDA's sanitation standards, a lot of foods actually have maggots (and other gross insects) hiding in them. For example, the FDA's website states that up to 5 percent of a can of brined or maraschino cherries are allowed to be contaminated by maggots. Canned fruit juices are also allowed to contain 1 or more maggots for every 250 mL, while mushrooms, canned or drained, are allowed to have 20 or more maggots of any size per 100 grams of drained mushrooms and 15 grams of drained mushrooms.

And don't assume that you're off the hook if canned fruit and mushrooms isn't exactly your favorite. Chocolate and chocolate liquor is allowed 60 or more insect fragments and 1 or more rodent hairs per 100 grams when examined by the FDA. Peanut butter, on the other hand, is also allowed 30 or more insect fragments and 1 or more rodent hairs per 100 grams.

While this news may gross you out, the FDA assures that these defects pose no hazards to your health. They may make you gag — or ditch that chocolate craving, at least for the next hour or so — but they're okay.

Guess that means Angelina Jolie was ahead of the curve when she started cooking with bugs.

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