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Comment by thadt | Hacker News Reader

On one hand, there are a ton of downsides from the government sticking their noses into this - development will become slower, more costly, and in many cases no more secure or higher quality.

On the other hand, as a rando off the street consumer, I appreciate that an FDA exists to help make sure someone selling me bread isn’t mixing sawdust in the flour to help juice those sweet startup bakery numbers. There are plenty of places to criticize the FDA, but we wouldn’t need that regulatory oversight if the public weren’t being harmed by such practices.

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If you’re interested, The Poison Squad by Deborah Blum is both horrifying and fascinating read about the food industry in late 1800s - early 1900s, and the foundation of the FDA.

At the time, it was common to put formaldehyde in meat and dairy, borax in butter, salicylic acid into wine, and to sell products such as “pepper dust”, which was literal dust with no real pepper in it.

Sawdust is unfortunately an actual food ingredient you’re more likely to find in industrial food regulated by the FDA. There’s an argument to be made that the free market, mom and pop/artisanal providers will be of higher quality than something regulated by the government.

There’s an argument for sure, but personally I would be more interested in evidence.

As long as it’s food safe saw dust then the FDA is doing it’s job.

We should be perfectly happy to trade in higher quality but dangerous products for lower quality but safe ones. The airline industry kills many fewer people than it used to, and most crashes and fatalities happen in the less regulated parts. Because of course they do.

if you've ever had pre-shredded cheese, like a bag fulla pre-shreded mozzarella, you have eaten sawdust. FDA regulated, food-safe sawdust.

tiny, very tiny, particles of saw dust (labeled "cellulose" in the ingredients), is used to keep the cheese from clumping up.

go and watch your favorite pizza chain make pizza, with giant bags of pre-shredded cheese, and then ponder your sawdust intake.

I’m very aware of cellulose in food production, this comment is not responsive to my point.

Edit: while we’re playing food trivia though, ponder the no-sawdust rule that doesn’t forbid cinnamon.

There's no evidence that mom and pop shops are any less likely to put borax in their 100% organic, gluten free, artisanal milk than a large company. Or even just washing the kitchen you can't really see. It's food safety laws and regulation that also keep them in line.

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