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Comment by tragictrash | Hacker News Reader

How is this considered food safe?

Chewing it will definitely break any casing on the device, right?

The other thing I'd like to point out is that these can be copied. They aren't like a yubikey which responds to a challenge with an internal asymmetric private key.

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It looks like it is in the qrcode sticker (which most people wouldn’t eat) - shown in the photo in the article. Eating it is no worse than eating a 500 micron grain of sand, except that the chip is safer and more hygienic to eat.

500 microns is pretty big for a food contaminant. It's about 4~5 hair widths, so I reckon your tongue can probably feel it and it might break under your bite.

I would bet it's safe if swallowed whole, but chewing? Not so sure.

Do you regularly chew grains of sand? I reckon your enamel is more in danger from this than anything else.

> Chewing it will definitely break any casing on the device, right?

Or your teeth (which is also not "food safe").

Possibly, no. It's apparently encased in silicon dioxide, and I imagine that is the reason. If it's small enough, chewing it will be like chewing a grain of sand. You won't break it. You might swallow it, but doing so is harmless. You wouldn't want to breathe it in, though.

Typically you don't eat the rind on this kind of cheese.

try me!!

What if it gets fed to some pet or farm animal?

I suppose they might be mistaken for fine Parmesan cheese. Otherwise they’ll be fine. Have you not noticed what your dog will happily eat off the ground when you’re out for a walk? Discarded socks, gravel, bits of plastic, cat shit, gum wrappers, literally anything that catches its eye when you’re not paying close attention.

That's why I feed my dog rusty staples.

Oh that took me back to wrestling a cigarette butt out of a baby pugs eager little mouth. Honestly if that dog had taken to eating tiny electronics it probably would have been a net improvement.

I’ve a friend with a young dog that she swears has pica. It’s proving nigh impossible to prevent it from hoovering up litter. It puts goats’ reputation to shame.

It's usually used for soup stock, though.

I was thinking the same thing. I never had great results with this, but it's certainly a traditional thing to throw the rind in water used for rice, etc. as well.

Probably depends on what kind of soup you're throwing it into. But yes, parmesan rinds are great for adding a bit of savory/umami/"funk" into your soups and stews. I keep a bag of them in the freezer and grab a few whenever I'm simmering something savory or meaty. Unused parsley or cilantro stems work well, too, as a soup toss-in.

Not sure if it would work well with rice. I tend to use bay leaves, star anise, or even ginger peels/skins for rice. All of those are more aromatic.

It's a waste if you're not. https://www.eataly.com/us_en/magazine/how-to/leftover-parmes...

I love parmesan rinds - it never occurred to me they might be dangerous.

None of those are eating the rind. They are putting the wine in broth for seasoning.

Adding it to risotto isn’t eating it? What are you doing with YOUR risotto?!

In general, the rind is put into food and removed before eating. Kind of like you are making the liquid into a sort of cheese tea... or the way you would season something with a sprig of rosemary, a cinnamon stick, or other spices that you remove before eating.

I wouldn't really want to make tea with tea leaves that have microchips in them

> Plop the rinds into your next tomato sauce, ragù, or soup and let it simmer. Remove whatever is left of the rind just before serving.

> Make your risotto even richer with the addition of the rinds! Put the rinds in the risotto after it's halfway done cooking. Let everything simmer as you stir and add more broth. Remove the rinds before serving.

I always plan to remove the rind but find that it has completely dissolved.

Italian here - that's no excuse for compromising food safety, also from a legal perspective.

I might be wrong, but as rind is part of the cheese itself, you can't just embed random electronics in it (unless you apply it e.g. as an external, removable seal)

I prize the rind for throwing in ragu to melt down

Yes, you do. At least, I do, and if you don't I'll be happy to eat yours too. I love Parmigiano. It's not really the reason why I ended up living in Parma, but it's a great coincidence nonetheless.

You’re typically missing out if you don’t. The rind is delicious!

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