That's disgusting!! Or is it?

You are eating with your wife at a fairly nice restaurant and you find a hair in your food. What do you do? 

We used to dine with a couple and the wife would freak the hell out. Demand to see the manager and be a general Karen. We no longer dine with them. Personally, I remove the hair and continue eating. It really doesn't bother me. 

If you find a moth in your cereal box, do you remove the moth and eat it or throw it out? Moths float in milk. I usually scoop them off the top and finish eating. 

I grew up cutting the worms out of corn and tomatoes as well as carving the rot off of potatoes and eating just about everything that came off a pig because we didn't throw food away. 

Now, look at this list from the FDA. This is the list of allowable defects in food according to the FDA. It includes things like rot, insects and insect fragments, mold, and rodent feces.

Food Defect Levels Handbook

I'm curious if that bothers people. I would bet that the majority of the population has no clue what is involved in growing food. 

To be honest, I am a little surprised that there is not more bugs/bug parts in bulk food.  They are all over the place when growing, unless they use a ton of pesticides, which to be honest I'd rather deal with dead bugs than pesticides and I am squeamish around dead things. 

In reply to Toyman! :

I'm like you. Pick it out and continue on. I was eating tacos at an outside restaurant recently and thought a bug may have flown into my mouth while eating. For a fraction of a second I considered my options. Then finished my taco. 
PW, and I suspect most, would freak. 

Don't hate if it's straight but get squirrely if it's curly. 

If I find the hair in my food? I might be able to let that pass if I avoid the food that was touching it. If I find the hair in my mouth? Dish ruined.

To be fair, hair is gross because it's from a person. Bugs? Pick em out and keep eating. Mold? If it's cheese, cut it off and keep eating. The natural world is not as gross as a piece of the sweaty cook in the other room.

It's hardware I have an issue with. The local Mexican joint has some old pans or something, I've gotten small screws in my food a couple times. Spit them out, suggest to the waiter they need new pans, tip the amount my meal was that they took care of. I'm just happy it's not a tooth breaking or falling out. 

In reply to RevRico :

You've gotten small screws a FEW TIMES in your food there?! And you keep going back? Must be some killer tacos or something. 

I've ate and drank far, far worse. I keep eating. I find a pube, however...

In reply to thatsnowinnebago :

Aside from the big corporate chains, I only stop going to restaurants if they make me ill, have terrible service, or drastically change their prices for no reason.

This is a rare combination of cheap Mexican food (made by Mexicans) that doesn't destroy my stomach and has great service, so I can overlook the screw or rivot from a pan once in a while. In the 30 or so times I've been there the last 2.5 years it's happened 2 or 3 times. I guess that's a lot, but not many places get that kind of business from me. 

In reply to RevRico :

I got a falafel wrap once that came with a big piece of wire.  I found it when it stuck under my gum between two teeth.

That was fun to dig out.

In reply to RevRico :

I was installing some shelving in a Mexican Restaurant. They refused to shut down while I worked, and being young and willing to bend I said OK. Long story short, some metal shavings went into a big pot of Salsa. I told the chef and he skimmed a little of the top and called it good. My uncle had to go nose-to-nose with the guy to get him to throw out the entire pot. They did so, but we got lots of dirty looks after.  Still better than "waiter, I've got a metal shard in my throat".

A guy I work with claims if a bug can eat it, it is safe for him to eat.

Appleseed said:

I've ate and drank far, far worse. I keep eating. I find a pube, however...

At a two day rallycross, Sunday morning, wae was cooking up some sausage links.  Extremely hungry after a day of rallycrossing and an evening of beer disposal, I encountered a plate of links that were swarming with ants.

I picked up a link, shook as many ants off as I could, and decided that any ants still clinging to the link wanted to be food, so I honored their wishes and ate the link and its stragglers. Then did the same for the other three links.

Don't care, had breakfast

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Me and Hellspawn went for a walk. On the way back, I noticed something orange in the driveway.  Oh, it's just a Cheeseit cracker. Must have fallen out of Hellspawn's blast zone in the back of SWMBO 's car. Totally covered in ants. Whatever,  little dudes. Eat up, I dont care.

I go around the garage to get something. The boy is playing in the drive. I turn around to clock where he is and I see a flash of orange as he picks something up.

"NNNNNOOOoooo...oh, well." Not getting there in time to stop him. He ate the cracker, ants and all. No berks given.

At least it's only a hair and not the whole tribble.

I had a mouthful of spinach when I was a kid and felt something un spinach like. I pulled half of a very long white worm out of my mouth. My mom thought it was hilarious and I never ate spinach again. 

Cereal prices are ridiculous and moths are protien, why toss it?

I found a hair in my eggs this morning. It was probably mine since I was the cook. 

My brother once found HALF a large cockroach in his spaghetti. 

RX Reven' said:

Don't hate if it's straight but get squirrely if it's curly. 

This is such a perfect summation of hair-in-food tolerances. I googled it to see if it was a saying, but it seems like it's not? Nice one.

SV reX said:

My brother once found HALF a large cockroach in his spaghetti. 

My friend was finishing off her McDonald's milkshake. When she took off the top to drink the last bit, there was a giant roach at the bottom of the cup.

In reply to Sarah Young :

That might be enough to make me a little cautious for a while.

Can I get a spoon with that shake so I can check it for lumps. 

Sarah Young said:

RX Reven' said:

Don't hate if it's straight but get squirrely if it's curly. 

This is such a perfect summation of hair-in-food tolerances. I googled it to see if it was a saying, but it seems like it's not? Nice one.

Thank you!

It was my creation (sophomoric tendencies run strong in me).  

Wife has issues with stuff like that. 

I don't, we were poor and didn't waste food in my house.

I do the cooking so she never knows when I've cut rotten parts out of a potato, cut the mold off cheese or taste-tested the expired milk before I've used it.