Dear fellow food consumers. I guess that would apply to all of us as we have to eat. When you use the statement that you are what you eat, be careful. You may not want to know what you are eating.

The FDA has the responsibility to inspect our food supplies. You will see federal inspectors in places like meat packing plants. For your local restaurant it is done by local governments. While I've not had much contact with the federal inspectors I did spend 20 years in the restaurant business and had a lot of contact with local health inspectors.

I do have to say that almost all of the inspectors that I worked with were good people trying to do a hard job the best they can. I say most because I have met some losers, but you will find them in all jobs, so let's not talk about them. So what do these fine men and women do? They are the ones who inspect the local restaurant and put that big letter grade up that you see. They also investigate complaints and do education of restaurant workers.

Are these fine people able to keep all the crap out of your food? Nope, they don't even try. The FDA has what they call "natural contaminants" that are allowed in food. They realize there is no way to have a 100% clean. Did you think it was?

So let's take a little quiz. Here are a few items that you would normally have in your house. Normally the amount allowed is averaged over several samples, but we are just going to list it as if there is only one, but that is not true. Let's play:

A. How many rodent hairs are allowed in 100 grams of chocolate?

B. How many fly or fly eggs are allowed in 250 ML of citrus fruit juice, canned?

C How many maggots are allowed in 250 ML of citrus fruit juice, canned?

D. How many insect fragments are allowed in 225 grams of macaroni or pasta products?

E. Peanut butter. How many insect fragments are allowed in 100 grams?

In this country we actually have it fairly good. I know that several years ago when I was in the Air Force that one of the problems that we found going out of country was just getting potable water, and we are not talking about 3rd world countries. How many of you have gone to Mexico and gotten a gastrointestinal problem?

From my experience in the food business I'm going to give you the one tip I use when I enter a restaurant, and I don't care if it a national chain or mom and pop, and living on the road I eat out a lot. Look down. Look at the base of the exposed equipment. Look around the legs where it sits on the floor. Look in the corners where mops pack crap. Look, the best you can, under the edge of grills and other cooking devices. If you see dead insects or rodent droppings, it's time to leave. If you see a build up of food that is old and not just the latest thing the cook dropped, leave. If there is a build up of old dirt and grease in easy to clean area, I'll assure you that you will find more in harder to clean places like refrigerators and air conditioning vents.

The answers:

A.1 B.5 C. 1 D.225 E. 30

BTW, what was your dinner?