Teens of Bay Area

Did you know that…

1. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has limits for unavoidable contaminants in food; this is known as the “Defect Action Levels.” For example, processed foods like flour are allowed one rodent hair and up to 75 insect fragments per 50 grams. Other additives, like L-cysteine, which can be synthesized from human hair or duck feathers,  can also be found in doughnut dough as a means to improve texture.
2. All the colorful sprinkles you see, whether it be on cakes or as ice cream toppings, are coated with shellac, which is a resin that is secreted by the female lac bug that is native to India and Thailand. It is primarily used to help preserve the sprinkles and to keep its surfaces shiny. Despite it being recognized as safe, it is still quite literally a bug-derived ingredient.
3. Fruit Snacks may not be as healthy as they seem… Most “fruit snacks” are more like candy than fruit despite the popular perception that they are indeed “healthy”. Fruit Snacks are made from juice concentrates or fruit puree, and are often combined with a bunch of added sugars, corn syrup, and other artificial flavors.
4. Strawberry-flavored foods rarely have actual strawberries within them. The flavoring is typically a mixture of more than 50 different chemical compounds, including substances such as amyl acetate or phenethyl alcohol. Numerous chemicals are often mixed to reproduce what we deem a “strawberry” flavor. 
5. The FDA allows up to 60 insect fragments and 1 rodent hair per 100 grams of chocolate. However, unlike the contaminants in flour, these are considered “unavoidable” and are not a health hazard at those levels.