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healthcare bureaucrat in philly, v adhd, orthodox jew, ect ect, im love my wife



pervocracy
@pervocracy

Fun* page of government PDFs: The USDA's Commercial Item Descriptions for various foods.

To the best of my understanding these are not binding regulations, it's not illegal to make an off-spec food, but it would probably be ineligible for any kind of purchase by the government.

But it's kind of fun to see the government try to quantify the key characteristics of foods, anyway.

Apple pie filling "must contain a 2 to 1 ratio of ground cinnamon to ground nutmeg or 0.1 percent cinnamon and 0.05 percent nutmeg by weight."

Cheddar cheese must have "a mild pleasing flavor" and "a uniform, bright attractive appearance." The only colors permitted are "medium yellow-orange" and "white to light cream."

There's a very detailed spec for breakfast pizza, which is apparently a real thing and not just when you have cold pizza the morning-after and it's actually kinda good. It "shall be processed using a pre-melt system to adhere the cheese to each portion."

Instant Ramen Noodles, at least if you want to sell them to any part of the military or any kind of federal aid program, "must have no foreign flavors and odors such as, but not limited to: burnt, scorched, stale, sour, or rancid." Noodles must make up 90 percent of the package volume if sold in a packet, or 82 percent if sold in a cup or bowl. It must be possible to fully rehydrate the noodles and any dehydrated vegetables within 3 to 5 minutes.

Many different types of cookie are recognized by the USDA, and each one is briefly described. For example, a milspec chocolate cookie:

The cookies shall have a distinct chocolate flavor typical of the flavor specified. The cookies shall have a tan to medium brown color. The cookies shall have a uniform distribution of chocolate chips and when applicable nuts, chocolate chunks, peanut butter chips, pan coated candy, peanut butter cups, and chocolate-covered-crunchy-peanut-butter-candy. When bake type a is specified, the texture shall be crispy, crunchy, and slightly crumbly, with a firm bite. Bake type a cookies may exhibit some surface cracking. When bake type b is specified, the texture shall be soft and slightly chewy.

You get the idea. I'm just scratching the surface. Don't read the one for tuna, the reasons for rejection are real gross just knowing those are possibilities.

*your idea of "fun" may vary


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in reply to @pervocracy's post:

i think those have some legal force: you can make something that doesn't fit the spec, but aren't allowed to call it by the name. this is based on a vague recollection that some outfit making tomato-ketchup-but-sweetened-with-(honey?) got official attention a few years back because the standard for ketchup specified a couple of options for sweeteners but not the one they were using. but it was ok to make and sell if they called it imitation ketchup.

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