Is there bat poop in Doritos? This question is not new. It has been asked over the years on numerous online forums and websites. There is a legitimate reason for asking the question, the hard part is finding a legitimate location with accurate answers. So we wanted to provide you, the readers, with the answer to this question once and for all.
Bat Removal and Prevention, Inc. is obviously a Wildlife Control company specializing in the removal of bats in homes and businesses. Our expertise in chip manufacturing is only on the consumption end. The work we do is pretty similar from location to location, the questions we get are not. A recent inquiry we received is related to bat guano and Doritos chips. The question goes like this, “Is there bat poop in Doritos”?
Well for questions that have seemingly obvious answers, we have discovered over the years, those obvious answers are the correct ones. But on this one we wondered, is it? A knee jerk reaction is, NO WAY! Come on, man! Of course they don’t. So in a mad dash to lovingly prove someone wrong, we discovered the following information related to this issue and it might just surprise you.
- First, the confusion in some part is due to terminology. There are common ingredients in many food products called guanine which sounds and looks a lot like guano, which is the term used for bat feces. Guano and guanine are often the root of much of the confusion simply because of the similarities.
- Another term is guanylate which comes from guanylic acid which is an active ingredient in Doritos. This term is also confused as being a root derivative of the term bat feces (guano).
These two terms, rightly understood, clear up a majority of the problems. But does that put the issue of bat guano in Doritos to rest? Well, it wouldn’t be a fun blog post if it did, so in an effort to gross you out, we would like to add a major reason why bat guano “may” be in Doritos.
The FDA does allow for, get this, rogue condiments. Which includes anything from mold, bacteria, rodent and/or insect filth. For potato chips they allow for “rot” at an amount less that 6% of pieces by weight. The reality is they have high regulations for rodent and insect filth but nothing on record for bat guano contamination. So given the odds of bat guano in or around chip factories, it would seem at least possible that you would find bat guano as part of that 6% “rot”.
But with full disclosure and as scary as that is I don’t think we will be cutting back on our Doritos consumption anytime soon. Why? The probable reason why bat guano is not listed by the FDA is that studies have been done and shown that guano is not prevalent enough to even register on any test.
So at the end of the day, we cannot be 100% certain on what particles are in the air at these factories, but we do know they have high health regulations by the FDA and guano is not an active “intentional” ingredient in Doritos. The rest is left to the imagination.
Check out our post on raccoon poop as well.
For more information and interesting topics around bat guano or other subjects visit our blog.
Recent Comments