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Most people who are allergic to chocolate aren't having a reaction to cocoa or any of chocolate's other official ingredients. No, the flare ups are most likely triggered by the ground-up cockroach parts that contaminate every batch.
According to ABC News, the average chocolate bar contains eight insect parts. Anything less than 60 insect pieces per 100 grams of chocolate (two chocolate bars' worth) is deemed safe for consumption by the Food and Drug Administration.
Allergists say most foods contain natural contaminants. Aside from chocolate, cockroach parts also make their way into peanut butter, macaroni, fruit, cheese, popcorn and wheat. The roach bits can affect people with asthma, as well causing migraines, cramps, itching or hives in people who are allergic to them.
The first cockroach allergy was reported in 1943, and skin testing for cockroaches began in 1959. Cockroach allergies can be treated with allergy shots that contain trace amounts of the insect. [Could Edible Bugs Solve World Hunger?]
According to Morton Teich, an allergist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, contamination by cockroaches and their droppings is unavoidable, because it happens at cocoa beans' source — the farms where they are produced. Preventing them from infiltrating the harvest would require the use of more pesticides, which Teich says are much worse for you than consuming a few extra bug parts.
Avoiding insects in your food is "almost impossible," Teich told ABC. "You probably would have to stop eating completely."
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- Do Bugs Taste Good When You're Starving to Death?
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Leave a Comment:
Yay, I wish I would have never read this useless article. Now the next time I'm savoring a chocolate bar (if ever) all I'm going to be thinking of is crunchy cockroach bits. If they aren't seeking to change anything about the insect contamination, I wish they wouldn't even mention it.
More free protein, and crunchy too.
Uggghhh. Can't believe I read this article. I will never be able to enjoy chocolate again.
I thought they supposed to do inspections and everything has to be in sanitary condition...AAaaggghhh!!! Another thing to worry about in life!!!!
Not worth worrying about, since you have no real control over it - you can avoid chocolate, but there are little bits of bugs in everything you eat, basically.
Right. I garden and grow my own food. Most of the bugs on my plants are eggs (from butterflies and beetles) or very small like tiny ants or aphids. Totally harmless and not gross at all.
Well that makes sense of why I sometimes break out in hives after eating chocolate. Thats really disgusting, it makes me rethink about eating that chocolate bar in my desk..
Mmmmm, crunchy, and maybe even a little extra protein!
Yeah, it's kinda disgusting, but no natural food source is absolutely pure. And hey, some people even eat chocolate covered ants willingly! So what's so bad about chocolate covered cockroach parts? Assuming they're sterilized as part of the cooking process, probably relatively harmless.
It's going to make me smile every time I go past that rack of chocolate bars at the supermarket checkout - I know in my mind I'm going to see them all relabeled as "Chocolate Covered Cockroach Parts".
Can anyone please explain why there are BUGS in everything we eat and why this is acceptable?