While you're banning peanut butter, you might also want to consider dropping canned mushrooms, suggests E.J. Levy in the New York Times (2/13/09). Although canned mushrooms, unlike some peanut butter, have not been reported as subject to salmonella contamination, they could contain more than "20 or more maggots of any size per 100 grams," or an "average of 75 mites." Sauerkraut, meanwhile, "may average up to 50 thrips. And when washing down those tiny, slender, winged bugs with a sip of beer, you might consider that just 10 grams of hops could have as many as 2,500 plant lice."

Any more contamination than that will provoke action by the F.D.A., according to its booklet (link) outlining "acceptable levels of ... 'defects' for a range of food products." These "defects" include insect and rodent filth, mold, mammalian excreta, rot, mildew, sand and grit, as well as "foreign matter," such as "sticks, stones, burlap bagging, cigarette butts, etc.)." Among other things, this means that "you're probably ingesting one or two pounds of flies, maggots and mites each year without knowing it."

This is because the F.D.A. "considers the significance of these defects to be 'aesthetic' or 'offensive to the senses,' which is to say merely icky" as opposed to actually dangerous. The standard is based "on economic grounds" and the premise that it's simply "impractical to grow, harvest, or process raw products that are totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects." For the record, peanut butter "may contain 145 bug parts for an 19-ounce jar; five or more rodent hairs for that same jar; or more than 125 milligrams of grit." Enjoy! ~ Tim Manners, editor.