insect

Consider the insect. Most people hate them; I know I certainly do. Every year my mom wages war against the huge carpenter ants that infest our home, looking for food. We crush them without mercy. But many of their bodies are actually already in our food; The FDA issues a body count of insect parts still acceptable to be in food products. Peanut butter contains up to 136 insect parts before it’s considered contaminated. A 4.4 ounce of chocolate can have up to 74 body parts, cinnamon contains up to 400 fragments in a fourth cup. So this begs the question- can even be truly vegetarian? Insects are considered meat- PETA has a strong stance against cricket flour, criticizing how companies are “pouring energy into [alternative protein sources] that will turn your stomach-like bugs.” So clearly, insects are considered meat. And various insect body parts- the head, thorax, abdomen, etc- are in food packaged in factories. So why isn’t it mentioned anywhere? Some people may say that it’s accidental- after all, it’s impossible to regulate all of the insects that fly in and out of the factory while it’s processing food. But many people are vegetarian for ethical issues or out of respect for animal rights. Does this apply to the insect? Various websites conclude that actively eating insects is not considered a vegetarian option, then what about unconsciously eating them? Some may argue that vegetarians can’t expect to regulate all of their food products but they should. They chose the lifestyle after all, so if they should adhere to their standards. Of course, everyone chooses to be vegetarian for different reasons, but I reason that those who are because of animal rights or ethical reasons should be careful about everything ingest. It seems to me that no one really talks about the fact that insect body parts are in various food products: body parts. The insect is not dead after flying into a jar of peanut butter, no, the mixer and shredder destroy the insect’s body into tiny pieces that disperse throughout the peanut butter. What if it were cow parts that were in your peanut butter? What if a cow walked through a shredder and the body parts ended up the peanut butter mixing bowl and the FDA said it was ok as long as there were only a couple pieces? Would consumers take the ignorant route? It doesn’t matter as long as I can’t see it. But ignorance is bliss until you learn about these types of things.