Jim;

There are laws on the books in San Francisco about food quality. As one example chocolate candy is allowed to have a maximum number of cock roach parts and rat droppings per ounce.

My High School Spanish teacher came from Central America, and his first job was at a well know candy factory in San Francisco. He described the workplace thusly:

It was two stories with one door at street level, which entered into the office. The office had a security door and was controlled by a secretary. No one got into the factory without the approval of the secretary.

In the workplace there were huge bins of sugar, flour and chocolate, which began at the floor and went straight up. All stock was loose and not kept in containers. Cats were used to keep down the rodent problem. Cats also used the bins as a litter box.

The secretary had a doorbell button under the top of her desk. If the health inspectors came into the office she would ring the buzzer. Each person had a job to do upon hearing the buzzer go off. My teacher’s job was to remove cat waste from the bins. Everyone was very efficient at what they had to do.

There is much more to the story but I will end with this. I asked my teacher if he still ate chocolate. He said in a loud clear voice, “Certainly”!

Tom

>I don't know about catsup, Jonathan.
>But I do remember several years ago that there was great public outrage when revised food production rules went into effect and someone found that in cooked canned and bottled fruits and vegetable, no more than 10 insect parts per container would be permitted.
>
>I think it turned out that the previous rules had allowed 12 (or something like that).