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Comment by jart | Hacker News Reader

It's hilarious how McDonalds ends up being the safest premade meals you can get (outside a big tech company cafeteria) at least from a scary plastic chemical standpoint. They actually have the resources and a big enough PR problem to spend the money to send their stuff to labs and get it tested. Everyone else solves the PR problem by just labeling their food organic and healthy instead. https://justine.lol/tmp/healthy.jpg This is all of course assuming no one discovers anything horrible about DEHT in the future, which is the new chemical they're leaning into. I get maybe 10% as many Google Scholar hits on DEHT compared to its terrifying well-studied cousin DEHP.

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McD tested high for phthalates, phthalate substitutes, and even sometimes for bisphenols.

It is ironic. Amazing how if you don't go looking for it, there is no bad news!

I see the same in people who visit developing countries and talk about how "fresh and organic" the food is. They comment "you don't read about the food safety issues like you do in developed countries".

Yeah, of course you don't, the developing countries don't test!

Not gonna lie, the meat I had in some European countries without preservatives and processing went through me so cleanly and easy I’m convinced we are the ones dropping the ball in this whole discussion somehow.

Not knowing where in Europe you went eating meat, there is a good chance it was a developed country.

Regarding the EU vs. US food debate I would generally expect to find higher quality produce in the EU countries, and that is not because things a pushed under the rug. That is just more regulation.

Morocco and Spain

That's partly true, but on the other hand less intensive, less industrialized food production will end up with safer food. The apple or tomato from your grandma's backyard in Eastern Europe will have less chemicals than the one grown in the Dutch monoculture farm.

My personal experience is the opposite. There is no control on the produce on grandma's backyard and therefore we have no idea how much chemicals she is using. Probably she doesn't know either. But I'm sure of one thing: she definitely uses chemicals if she wants to eat (or sell) those apples. Chemical-free agriculture is more demanding and the grandma doesn't have an incentive to invest in it. After all, using chemicals is what she learned growing up and therefore is the "traditional" way.

I dont think grandmas are out there using genetically modified crops so they can douse the whole thing in Roundup

The idea that Roundup is the worst pesticide being used is optimistic.

It’s like the GP indicates - I think the concern is more for yield than safety.

My experience as a tourist was that some fruit reeked so strongly of chemicals that I just kept away from it.

Grandmas can be growing it in heavily contaminated soils (old motor oil, lead, arsenic, etc.), or using ‘random weed spray’ at 10x its recommended dosage, or not washing their hands after using the toilet and then handling veggies, etc.

Your scenario provides far fewer applications of pesticides than the alternatives, especially those in "organic farming", with a pesticide that is much less bad than the common alternatives.

Having lived in a developing country for a decade: they don't speak the local language and don't read local news that's why they don't hear about it. The local news and gossip is always full of it.

Varies by country.

But my comment was more about government inspections and news about violations, not news about food poisoning outbreaks.

In the developing country I was in, plenty of food products are never tested, but once you've visited a factory it's clear it would be shutdown in any developed country.

Yeah I know a guy who’s daughter almost died after eating an ice cream cone bought at a roadside stall in Thailand. Had to go to hospital and get her stomach pumped and everything…

Roadside icecream in Asia is quite hazardous. I would in general eat only very hot cooked food (165F or 74C, inside and outside) while in Asia, thereby ensuring the germs are dead. Stick to boiled or sealed bottled water. Despite the food being hot, it can still sometimes contain bacterial toxins or mycotoxins. Avoid salads while outdoors almost anywhere. Also be careful with the choice of fish to avoid any potentially toxic fish, e.g. reef fish.

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