[dropcap]H[/dropcap]ow many fly eggs and maggots can you tolerate in your food? One, five, ten, more? If you sit down to lunch at your favorite restaurant and notice a bunch of wiggly white critters exploring your spaghetti will you go back for seconds?
The following represents the criteria for direct reference seizure to the Division of Compliance Management and Operations (HFC-210) and for direct citation by the District Offices:
The average (minimum 12 subsamples) of any code, or of the lot if no code is present, is at least the following:
Canned Tomatoes
10 or more fly eggs per 500 grams or 5 or more fly eggs and 1 or more maggot per 500 grams, or 2 or more maggots per 500 grams.
Tomato Juice
10 or more fly eggs per 100 grams or 5 or more fly eggs and 1 or more maggot per 100 grams, or 2 or more maggots per 100 grams.
Tomato Puree
20 or more fly eggs per 100 grams or 10 or more fly eggs and 1 or more maggot per 100 grams, or 2 or more maggots per 100 grams.
Paste, Pizza and Other Sauces
30 or more fly eggs per 100 grams, or 15 or more fly eggs and 1 or more maggot per 100 grams, or 2 or more maggots per 100 grams.
NOTE: Drosophila maggots 2 mm, or less in length shall be considered equivalent to fly eggs, for the purpose of this guide.
YUM, YUM!!
For the metric system illiterate (like myself) 100 grams is equal to 3.5 ounces.
Housefly eggs [Image credit]A female housefly can lay a batch of 75 to 150 eggs at a time. A single female can lay several batches totalling up to 500 eggs in about 3 to 4 days. Eggs are laid on any suitable food source such as decomposing food in garbage, animal excrement, carrion and other decomposing organic matter. Shown below is an egg deposit on a chunk of corn beef. Food is never pretty close up. The eggs are very tiny so the photo includes a pencil to give an idea of the eggs’ relative size.
What do you think? How much fly parts and eggs are too much? Is 2 millimeters an acceptable length for ingested maggots?
I’m Marty Duren, a freelance writer, content creator, podcaster, and publisher in Nashville, TN. I guess that makes me an entrepreneur-of-all-trades. Formerly a social media strategist at a larger publisher, comms director at a religious nonprofit, and a pastor, Marty Duren Freelance Writing is the new business iteration of a decade-long side-hustle.
I host the Uncommontary Podcast which publishes weekly. Guests range from academics to authors to theologians to activists on subjects related to history, current events, and the impact of evangelicalism on American life. My voice is deep-fried giving rise to being labeled “a country Batman.” Find Uncommontary in your favorite podcast app.
Missional Press publishes books by Christian writers with the goal of impacting people with the good news of Jesus.
I’m a longtime blogger at Kingdom in the Midst, where, over the course of many years, I’ve written a lot of words.
