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Jan. 24 2023, Published 2:46 p.m. ET
Unless you happen to be allergic, you probably grew up eating the childhood essential meal, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, at some point. And now, with more peanut butter varieties than ever, ranging from crunchy to smooth, peanut butter remains a favorite among adults and children alike.
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Are there bugs in peanut butter?
According to the FDA, insect and rodent filth can appear in peanut butter, but in very small fragments. The FDA limits insect filth to an average of 30 or more fragments per 100 grams of peanut butter, and rodent filth to an average of one or more rodent hairs per 100 grams of peanut butter.
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This may seem gross or outrageous, and you may be reconsidering ever eating peanut butter again, but I beg you to please listen. Peanut butter is not unique in these conditions. In fact, much of the food we eat contains things that we might not wish to be there. Like bugs.
With the current FDA limits, many foods contain unavoidable defects that “present no health hazard,” per the FDA.
In fact, peanut butter is one of the more regulated foods on the FDA list, per CNN Health. That’s especially true when comparing peanut butter to apple butter, where more than four rodent hairs and five entire insects are allowed per 100 grams.
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Are all peanut butters vegan?
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You may be asking though, should vegans be concerned about the possibility of bugs? Honestly, no. This is because, according to Mashed, most foods including vegetables, fruits, packaged snacks, etc, contain some amount of insect fragments.
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Even the most experienced quality control team cannot remove every single microscopic insect fragment. Ben Chapman, a food safety specialist and agricultural and human sciences professor at North Carolina State University told CNN Health, “I look at it as a yuck factor versus a risk factor. Insect parts are gross, but they don’t lead to foodborne illnesses.”
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In comparison to eating raw or undercooked food that could contain bacteria, or ingesting harmful metals, plastic, or glass parts that could appear in processed foods, insect and rodent filth do not pose nearly as large of a threat, according to Chapman.
