Hacker News Reader

Comment by hollerith | Hacker News Reader

>Now there's effectively no way to know if a baked product will actually contain sesame

You are catastrophizing. It remains the case that any baked product that doesn't have "may contain traces of sesame" on the label must by law be free of traces of sesame. And if no producer chooses to produce such a product, then it is because the number of people who want it is quite small (or the costs of complying with regulations is too high to make a profit), and it is not hard for someone to bake their own bread.

View on HN

No one wins by some percentage of the population having to bake their own bread.

If these facilities cannot keep unwanted visible particulates like sesame out of their products, how can they keep dirt and bacteria out?

This regulation is not only good for people allergic to sesame, it's a brown M&M test. I see value in it.

> how can they keep dirt and bacteria out?

They can't. It's statistically impossible. Even operating theaters and clean rooms can't keep every trace bit of dirt or bacteria out. All anyone tries to do is reduce the incidence to below a meaningful threshold.

If the requirement is: either eliminate every last molecule of every offending substance, or use a label that the offending substance may appear in trace amounts... well, everyone is going to opt for the label.

I didn't say "every last molecule", I said "visible particulates".

Nice attempt to straw-man though.

Not a straw man if you look at the spirit of the argument.

Yes, that's exactly what strawmanning is:

"Ignore the stated argument, discuss my weaker mischaracterization of it instead."

Have you cooked anything? Have you never ever had a hair fall into a pot your mixing? (Even if you always wear a hat, and always clean it before hand, there is non zero chance)

Spirit of that previous parent message was that “never ever contaminated” is not a realistic option.

Yes op stretched that to molecules, but exactly same argument applies to seeds.

I guess you forbid any kind of hyperbole in 50m radius.

I have worked in food service and we were required to wear hats or hairnets specifically for that reason. If it had happened that some foreign material had fallen in the food, we would have considered it a big problem.

In restaurants, little pieces from the metal pot scrubbing pads tend to be a constant problem. But this represents a cost choice: more expensive scrubbing solutions are available.

What happened to the idea we should take the most charitable interpretation of a post? I thought that was in the community guidelines here.

> If these facilities cannot keep unwanted visible particulates like sesame out of their products, how can they keep dirt and bacteria out?

They seemingly cant. There is a federally allowable amount of rat droppings allowed in food and it is non-zero!

Then it should be on the label.

Always ate buckwheat with mice droppings as a child. Yummy.

Kinda seems like you're arguing just to argue.

Unlike your comment, I have a point.

Cross contamination includes stuff like fragments of sesame seeds stuck in a corner of a conveyor belt or air duct since yesterday's production run. I don't think cleanroom baked goods would be affordable.

Bacteria is not actually that big concern. These are cooked products, meaning that their temperature can reach 82-99C. So unless there is clear uncontrolled growth the cooked product is safe.

> No one wins by some percentage of the population having to bake their own bread

Doesn't the rest of the population win by being able to buy cheaper bread, at the cost of the affected?

Personally, I don't think bread made in a facility that can't control the ingredients is a 'win' at any price.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com