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Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?
- graderjs 6y agoGreat. Reminds me of the start of a Murakami novel. "I was cooking pasta in the kitchen, and carefully preparing a simple salad, when I noticed the clock in the wall began ticking backward. That wasn't all, outside... "
- mongol 6y agoWhat novel is that? Sounds very exciting.
- graderjs 6y agooh I mean "reminds me of” as a term including "sounds like"... and was just copying what I think of as Murakami's style and some of his common tropes such as pasta, cooking, strangeness in mundane situations. If you're interested in reading, I reckon it's safe to read his books in chronolgical order. You can see how his style and preoccupations develop over the years. The first story I read was "on meeting the 100% perfect girl one April morning" out of a short story collection called "the elephant vanishes" which is not his first book. I was in a bookshop in early 2003 and just randomly looking for the shortest thing I could possibly read and this story got me hooked on Murakami. and then I think after reading that short story book the next thing I read was "hear the wind sing", his original short novel. And then "pinball 1973" and then I think "Norwegian Wood." I like his sort of loose universe how similar characters and types of characters and tropes kind of return but the the recurrence is not necessarily central to any of the particular stories they're just kind of like motifs.
- mongol 6y agoI see! I was curious what made the clock go backwards, seemed like a very interesting plot element!
- sincerely 6y agoMurakami is more magic realism than scifi, so if you're looking for explanations for the weird happenings in his books you often end up out of luck
- mindcrime 6y agoAgreed. Murakami introduces all sorts of weird / surrealistic / magical elements into stories, but there's rarely if ever any attempt to explain them. They're just part of the fabric of the story. Magic realism is kind of weird genre. Sort of "in between" in that "magic shit happens, but in our ordinary world, not a world where magic shit happens". That is, magic happens, but not in a Harry Potter'ish or Tolkein'ish world where magic is explicitly part of the world. All of that said, I love Murakami. Need to finish reading the rest of his novels one of these days.
- RobertoG 6y agoI remember a feeling of being dreaming while reading the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. The plot have the same logic than dreams. It's certainly not science fiction but I loved it.
- giantDinosaur 6y agoWhat an amusingly accurate comment. I still remember the pasta the main character was making in the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle at one point.
- woodruffw 6y agoFor what it’s worth, I bought bucatini at Zabar’s a little bit over two months ago — but I had to ask! :-)
- rubatuga 6y agoHilarious writing, and a very intriguing investigation into this mystery!
- colmvp 6y agoI'm glad someone else noticed it. During the height of the first pandemic wave in Canada, I literally couldn't find Bucatini anywhere, specifically De Cecco which IMO is superior to some other brands where I live. I went to dozens of supermarkets and they had every variant of pasta except Bucatini and I really couldn't understand what the heck was going on.
- Scoundreller 6y agoLooks like it's had pretty good availability on amazon.ca, but OOS for the last month: https://ca.camelcamelcamel.com/product/B07N21XB55 https://ca.camelcamelcamel.com/product/B07N21XB55 but like 5x the price on .com https://www.amazon.com/Molisana-Italian-Bucatini-oz-Pkgs/dp/B07JKD2988/ https://www.amazon.com/Molisana-Italian-Bucatini-oz-Pkgs/dp/...
- jhatax 6y agoI just bought some for pickup at target.com. Their Good & Gather brand Bucatini [1] is available in a couple of stores in the East Bay Area (Alameda, Albany). I hope you can find some locally. 1. https://www.target.com/p/signature-bucatini-16oz-good-38-gather-8482/-/A-79283453 https://www.target.com/p/signature-bucatini-16oz-good-38-gat...
- bamboleo 6y agoDe Cecco is an expensive brand in Italy. When I'm abroad I don't buy anything but. Barilla will do if De Cecco is missing though.
- mewse-hn 6y agoAt the beginning of the article I was thinking surely there are more important things to write about, but it dives down a pretty absurd rabbit hole. Especially funny is when the pasta spokesperson begins commiserating that the reporter is making more work for them.
- Scoundreller 6y agoIt's a good point though. Why/how is something unsafe for an American, but safe for an Italian or Spaniard? Differing regulations and standards between countries usually makes no sense and just harms the consumer. How is a Volvo made for the Swedish market unsafe on Canadian roads? EU and Canada recently signed a trade agreement so that they won't tariff eachothers' cars, but consumers still can't buy a car from a European dealer and have it shipped over. Or vaccines. Why isn't there a global approval system? Yeah yeah, everyone can point to an example where their regulatory agency's anxieties/delays/negligence prevented some issue, but fail to consider the impacts of all of their other delays/rejections.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- freeone3000 6y agoThere are various regulatory trade-offs between safety and cost of compliance. For instance: Cars sold as new in Canada require daytime running lights and yellow rear turn signals, due to extended periods of low visibility. While the running lights are a requirement in Sweden, they aren't in Poland or many other European countries. There's been some effort on standardizing between US and Canada since 2016, which would allow for a North American market car to solely use yellow turn signals, but progress is slow. Which is why we probably won't see much progress in harmonizing bigger regulations. Whose regulation gets to win? This has been a five-year fight over the color of a piece of plastic. Everyone even wants to agree - the automotive industry would love a worldwide standard to reduce specialized part count, rulemakers would love to agree in order to increase the shared market size (so everyone gets the same cars), but the actual standard to be put into place calls into conflict the exact safety versus cost thresholds each government has set. Imagine if there's actual conflict.
- poulsbohemian 6y agoIt is a wonderful pasta, but doesn't really surprise me that there could be a shortage as it isn't necessarily a pasta that every grocery store will carry. In my own little community (founded by Italians...), there's only one place that carries it with any regularity anyway.
- bamboleo 6y agoIf you’re looking for a TL;DR: People are using bucatini as eco-friendly straws, but uncooked pasta isn’t safe so the FDA temporarily blocked it or something.
- valleyer 6y agoThe straws theory is mentioned, yes, but the article specifically details how the FDA action was based on the measured iron content of De Cecco's pasta, and it also discusses reasons for scarcity of other manufacturers' bucatini.
- jakear 6y agoMore interesting is that the FDA apparently never spot checks these sorts of things, so the claim is Big Pasta has some sort of axe to grind against De Cecco.
- jeffbee 6y agoThe straw theory doesn’t make physical sense. It would take a week to drink a soda through a noodle.
- mertd 6y agoWho said you could only use one noodle strand?
- noisy_boy 6y agoDoes this mean Bucatini shortage is a good indicator of wide-spread issues? Seems like its time for Bucatini index.
- jrockway 6y agoIt seems like a major brand changed flour suppliers, falling under the FDA-required amount of iron, and thus not being allowed to import it. I don't think that is indicative of any wider issues, except that the government might be interfering with your food a little bit too much.
- foton1981 6y agoI am afraid this article will resurrect shortage even if it ended lately: I never cared about pasta shapes, but now I want bucatini. With 52 hacker news points there goes national stock of bucatini.
- foobarbazetc 6y agoI really want some now, too. :/
- sq_ 6y agoYeah, with the amount they talked about extra sauce absorption in the article, I now have a very strong desire to try it myself...
- kortex 6y agoI found that comment kind of odd, since the real king of sauce absorption is spaghetti rigati - spaghetti with ridges. Bucatini has good sauce absorption but imho its claim to fame is its thickness, mouthfeel, and rigidity, which the author hilariously and accurately refers to as "sentient". It has a mind of its own. There are two similar noodle shapes, pici and Strozzapreti (literally "priest stranglers") but they are even harder to find.
- stellar678 6y agoYou can just make your own! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuWNKMy2yKA&t=239 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuWNKMy2yKA&t=239
- baryphonic 6y agoThe curse-blessing of getting to the top of HN has jumped the digital-physical barrier. Which is more likely: Error 404: Bucatini not found. MySQL Error: cannot get connection to deliver Bucatini. /me shows self out
- baskire 6y ago
- scarmig 6y agotl;dr most pasta brands are pruning lower volume SKUs during the pandemic, and in addition De Cecco is running into some kind of FDA enforcement action against its bucatini because of low iron content.
- spoonjim 6y agoAn interesting example of how a completely uninteresting topic can be made interesting by a good writer.
- AleMonte 6y agoThat's true, right? All in all it's just pasta. I'm Italian so I it got my attention. I thought I would never have gone through all the article but in the end, that's exactlt what happened.
- KennethPT 6y agoIt seems like she had fun writing it too - so also an example of how a boring assignment can be made interesting!
- post_break 6y agoI have never had bucatini, but of course thanks to this article now it's all I want.
- cortesoft 6y agoVery good stealth marketing
- ljf 6y agohttp://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
- Alex3917 6y agoIt’s hard to imagine any writer who pitched doing a piece like this to the marketing department of a pasta company not just being told to fuck off. If it was possible to make money writing articles like this, there would be a lot more of them.
- rtx 6y agoThough it's hard to write this well
- Alex3917 6y agoIt's not hard, it just takes a long time, which costs $$$. That's why it's very very unlikely to be sponsored, because no CPG company is going to spend 100k to commission a writer to spend several months working on an art piece. Except maybe Red Bull, but this isn't about Red Bull.
- bookofjoe 6y ago>It's not hard, it just takes a long time.... James Lord, biographer, to Alberto Giacometti, while watching the artist draw him: "It looks so easy." Giacometti: "It is easy. All it takes is a lifetime."
- noxryan 6y agoI found the premise of this odd. I also live in Brooklyn and have had no issues finding bucatini this year. It's consistently in stock at my nearby whole foods.
- Shorel 6y agoI would read your rebuttal article.
- prepend 6y agoI can buy 20 pounds on Amazon for $40. I wish the author had addressed this solution to his perceived shortage. Is this some bad brand? Are all these brands sucky? Did the author forget to google for mail order pasta? Did all these companies in Italy not work out for him? This journalist needs a journalist friend to help cover his story.
- jakear 6y agoHer. The point of the article is in the writing more than the actual subject matter.
- prepend 6y agoI suppose, but couldn’t the author write about how her favorite pasta is actually available through mail order?
- qalmakka 6y ago> 20 pounds of pasta for $40 That's around €3.60/kg, which is considered in Italy a quick way to get street riots. Go over €4/kg and you'll get a full blown revolution, complete with a fully functional guillotine. In my local supermarket 500g of bucatini De Cecco come for €.99, which is around $1.22. I understand that pasta in considered a specialty on the other side of the pond, but it is still basically just (semolina) flour and water, and no matter how fancy it could be, it's outrageous to pay that much for something mass produced.
- dnhz 6y agoBarilla sells for $1.25 to $1.50 for 454 grams (1 lb) in the US; that's getting close to $2 per lb. De Cecco is premium stuff here. I've seen $4 per lb, which is like $9 per kg.
- qalmakka 6y agoBarilla is also one of the more generic and blander pastas; once you switch to the higher end, bronze extruded brands, it gets immeediately clear why they cost more. It's still better than some non-Italians brands that are made in normal wheat flour instead of durum wheat semolina, and look so pale and dull they maks you wonder why you didn't cook rice instead.
- JoshGlazebrook 6y agoI had a very hard time finding bucatini back in February in the Austin area. I eventually ordered a box off amazon.
- Scoundreller 6y ago> “FDA is quite slow to take action involving standards violations. I’m speculating that a competitor put some heavy pressure on FDA,” Or the enrichment material supplier that the pasta-maker cut back on. Or pasta-maker switched flour suppliers to a cheaper under-enriched source.
- Sevii 6y agoWhich makes me wonder what exactly the FDA is doing if it doesn't regularly test food for quality and safety?
- Scoundreller 6y agoVaccines! But seriously, they do inspect a lot of drug manufacturing facilities, even overseas. As a Canadian, I trust their approvals more than Health Canada's. I suspect Health Canda just copies whatever the FDA does a few weeks later. Dunno why either haven't banned addictive substances (cigarettes) and let the non-addictive but fun ones get a free ride. But ya know.
- _huayra_ 6y agoUnfortunately oversight may not always be so great, especially for generics: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/12/722216512/bottle-of-lies-exposes-the-dark-side-of-the-generic-drug-boom https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/12/7222165...
- Scoundreller 6y agoI never said it was good, but the FDA seems to be doing the most.
- arduanika 6y agoWhatever the source, clearly someone along the line was looking to get enriched
- jakear 6y agoFun article but I can’t seem to match their excitement for the cut... to me it’s just spaghetti that’s much harder to slurp on account of it being a straw.
- OJFord 6y agoA feature for anyone in your vicinity..!
- vineyardmike 6y agoAnd for the linens and clothes in the vicinity! Slurping is so messy with heavy sauces
- ggm 6y agoI jumped ship to Linguine, the flatness also holds more sauce than rounder non hollow pasta i find. Cooking Bucatini was proving too hard for me, and it doesn't drain well. Pasta was my staple, but has become sometimes-food now, its too easy to put on weight. De Niro is said to have wolfed down linguine to pork himself up for the La Motta role in "Raging Bull"
- mxcrossb 6y agoIt’s an interesting reminder that a lot of simple staples in the US are fortified with various nutrients. It almost transforms your view such that it’s less you buying food, and more the government providing your provisions so that you’re a healthy worker. I found myself recalling an article on Britain’s National Loaf.
- hef19898 6y agoA very good friend of mine moved to Texas a year ago from Europe. Every time she visits, she is astonished that grocery shopping at discounters in Germany ends up being healthier that when she tries to get "healthy" groceries in the US. No idea if this holds true, but I had the same impression vacationing in New York (obviously not representative). I do see quality differences between German and French supermarkets as well, with quality in France being better. I largely prefer not enriched food, including salt. It just tastes better, IMHO.
- ncmncm 6y agoBucatini I can frankly take or leave. But when gemelli disappeared for several months I was distraught. Nothing is better in mac'n'cheese. I make it in a cake pan, less than an inch deep, with sourdough cubes and grated cheese on top, toasted to a crisp. The mac really is just there to hold up the cheese toast. But that doesn't stop me from putting in chopped chili peppers (not too much, 2 oz is plenty!), nutmeg, and a hint of cayenne. Strozzapreti can substitute for gemelli, but it is even harder to find any of.
- selimthegrim 6y agoCalabrian chilis sound promising
- bookofjoe 6y agoChick-fil-A Mac'N'Cheese a solid stand-in if you don't have the energy...
- howlgarnish 6y agoGreat article, but I have to admit I'm a bit surprised by the adoration here: I've on occasion accidentally bought bucatini when I wanted spaghetti, and was mostly annoyed by the tubes squirting out hot water when I tried to eat them like they were spaghetti. Any bucatini-optimized pasta recipes to recommend?
- hardwaregeek 6y agoDo you finish the pasta in the sauce? That helps coat the pasta in the sauce, both inside and out. Basically take the pasta out of the water a few minutes early, put it in a pan with the sauce and some of the pasta cooking water, and finish cooking it there.
- ReDeiPirati 6y agoBucatini alla amatriciana or bucatini alla carbonara. But I'm not sure if you will be able to find Guanciale (a derivate of pork jowl or cheeks) and Pecorino cheese. You can replace Guanciale with cubes of -smoked- bacon (please forgive me italian readers) and Pecorino with Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (that should be more easier to find). Important: as shared by other HN users, remember to put the pasta out of hot water a couple of minutes before the cooking time and stir it on a hot pan with the sauce for the last 2 minutes. Make sure to add also a few tablespoons of the hot (salted) water you used to cook the pasta, this helps to make the cream effect.
- toyg 6y agoIf available, anything marked “Pancetta” will suit better than smoked bacon. They are not the same thing. Guanciale is pretty much impossible to find outside of Italy, at least in regular supermarkets. I reckon it’s because nobody can pronounce it
- legerdemain 6y agoThe article mentions the fact that the FDA calls all legal pasta "enriched macaroni." The article also mentions trade groups pressuring the FDA to set arbitrary standards on pasta to keep out imports of Asian noodles. The article fails to mention what the FDA calls Asian noodle products. It calls them "alimentary paste."
- userbinator 6y agoThat must be a formal legal term, although it is certainly appropriate: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alimentary https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alimentary "Of, or relating to food, nutrition or digestion." "Nourishing; nutritious." (At least the first part; "extruded alimentary paste" would be a more precise description of noodles.)
- legerdemain 6y agoThe point isn't whether the word "alimentary" means anything. You probably know related words like "alimony." (Tangentially, the humorous novel Through the Alimentary Canal with Gun and Camera is a surprising early precursor to Fantastic Voyage and related stories of microscopic explorers inside the human body.) The point is that calling any food product "alimentary paste" is hilariously unappetizing.
- twic 6y ago'Paste' is an old word for pastry, too. It makes old recipes rather odd sounding [1]: > make six or eight ounces of paste as No. 319, roll it to the thickness of a quarter of an inch, or a little more, put pudding-cloth in a basin, sprinkle some flour over it, lay in your paste, and then the meat, together with a few pieces of fat; when full put in three wineglasses of water; turn the paste over the meat, so as not to form a lump, but well closed; then tie the cloth And who could resist paste pudding [2]? [1] http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/beefpudding.htm http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/beefpudding.htm [2] http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/pastepudding.htm http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/pastepudding.htm
- bunnie 6y agoStrangely, one of the first pasta casualties we noticed in Singapore was bucatini disappearing from the shelves here as well. Which has nothing to do with the FDA issue brought up in the article, but probably has to do with the comment in the article that pasta makers were reducing the output of less popular SKUs...hoping bucatini makes a comeback in 2021!
- MPSimmons 6y agoThis was a rollercoaster. +1 Nicely written!
- divbzero 6y agoThe real story behind this article is that the reporter is trying to give bucatini a PR boost and rescue it from its current fate as an unpopular SKU. Mission accomplished? Check back in 10 years.
- fergie 6y ago"I was also slightly worried that I had inadvertently made myself a target of Big Pasta." This could be the hottest Netflix drama of 2021.
- DocG 6y agoHaha, that was well written article. Highly reccomended reading.
- andi999 6y agoI always hated the expression, but honestly, now I understand: first world problems
- sam_goody 6y agoThe writing style is awesome, I literally laughed out loud. Beyond that, the article reminds us that in every industry there are powerful actors that protect their monopoly, and will coerce the government into helping them. I read an article about import taxes on sugar that were created to keep out competition, and as a result everything uses corn syrup. Other examples abound. Unfortunately, the solution of government oversight of itself (such as FBI breathing down the neck of the NSA), has obvious circular drawbacks.
- m463 6y agoI can't help but think of Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack. During a golf tournament, he gives the officials some money saying "keep it fair, keep it fair!"
- Smaug123 6y agoIf you like this writing style, food critic Jay Rayner writes in a way I find pretty similar: https://www.theguardian.com/food/series/jay-rayner-on-restaurants https://www.theguardian.com/food/series/jay-rayner-on-restau...
- sunpar 6y agoI actually think most of the governmental functions in this article worked quite well. Told another way, a firm in the marketplace for pasta found that a competitor was out of regulation with their product, and they found a person in congress who could press a slow-moving and ineffective agency to do better at doing their job: enforcing said regulations. That's exactly what you want your elected representatives to do: listen to their constituents and act accordingly to ensure a fair outcome according to the law. Note that no laws were changed in this to favor one company over another, if anything the previous state was one in which the company in question was profiting from shipping out-of-regulation product, perhaps at decreased cost compared to in-compliance firms. The rule itself can be debated, but in general I find that a law specifying in exact numbers what a product should contain in order to qualify for a label to be a very good law. It's exact, it's measurable, and it's achievable by all. Fair and equal enforcement should make it a good regulation. If you say "well you don't need this law, it's over-regulation", that's a good argument -- I'm not sure I have an opinion on that. On one hand, I think Standard of Identification make a lot of sense, but I also know that drawing the lines can be a very delicate art form (what makes a pasta noodle vs. a ramen noodle? What makes champagne vs. sparkling wine? And so on) Edit: Also, I think a lot of this could be dealt with better by an FDA that has a good communication arm. "We found this company to not be compliance with existing law and took it off the shelves" sounds a lot better than having the company get to print saying "Seems like a hold up by the FDA"
- black3r 6y agothe only thing that baffles me somehow is: do you really get dried pasta shipped all the way from Italy to the US?
- vineyardmike 6y agoMuch of my food is imported from Italy... including the December-season Pannettone which dictates Italian provenance to bear the name.
- toyg 6y ago“Do you really get phones shipped all the way from China?” What’s the problem with specialised goods coming from a country that specializes in making such goods...?
- gorpomon 6y agoWhat I love about this story is that this is the tension of politics in a nutshell. What has happened here is what people would term "state capture", where someone uses the state to gain an advantage. Probably though, the solution is to not _completely_ demolish any standard of pasta and let the market solely decide, because we've seen what happens in a variety of other unregulated industries. However, I won't make my stand on any solution here: I'm more of a polenta person honestly. It's a true problem that requires nuance, or lacking that, constant vigilance to make sure the system works for everyone. I'm realizing more and more that there will never be a political promised land, a polity will always have to perform the maintenance of their system, and every generation will have to actively work to bend their systems toward justice.
- vanderZwan 6y agoWhat I find most interesting is that the standard is defined in nutritional value, not in terms of ingredients (x percent flour, up to y percent egg, something like that). > Probably though, the solution is to not _completely_ demolish any standard of pasta and let the market solely decide, because we've seen what happens in a variety of other unregulated industries. A few relevant anecdotes on this topic: About a decade ago, a Dutch TV-show about food standards discovered that store-bought "guacamole" contains just 1% avocado powder. Presumably the legal standard for guacamole is that it contains avocado, without further specification. So obviously supermarkets, knowing that most Dutch people there haven't a clue what guacamole is, created the cheapest sauce imaginable. Another story: the process of standardizing chocolate at the EU level was a long one because each country had different national standards. The biggest talking point, IIRC, was whether or not it was acceptable to use non-cocoa fat (keep in mind that adding fat from other sources would often be cheaper). Note that whichever option would be picked, the chocolate industries of the nations with the "opposing" regulation felt like they would lose: - if added fat was allowed, the chocolate from countries where this wasn't allowed nationally would be more expensive and have trouble competing - if added fat wasn't allowed, the chocolate from countries where this was the norm could not be exported
- ruph123 6y ago
- pkos98 6y agoHey folks, European chiming in here. If you are serious about bucatini, shoot me a DM and we can discuss importing that precious golden Ambrosia into the US of A, maybe declared as 'alimentary paste', drinking straw - or even use 'the Mexican route' to import it, if you know what I mean. I have to go now, my pasta is ready.
- wiradikusuma 6y agoHN doesnt support DM, I think you should put your email or Twitter handle in your profile :)
- Stratoscope 6y agoAnd note that the "email" field in your profile is not public. If you want to share your email, you need to put it in the "about" section.
- api 6y agoSet up a vendor on the dark web. “Top notch buca. Excellent stealth.”
- TameAntelope 6y agoIf I have to turn state's witness, please let it be about pasta...
- arduanika 6y agoNext time someone asks me what is cryptocurrency even good for, this is my new go-to response
- JackFr 6y agoTo be clear, when I say 'bucatini pipeline' I am referring to the elaborate method of import, rather than a pipeline made of bucatini.
- spthorn60 6y ago
- tomcooks 6y ago10USD/kg bucatini + 10 USD shipping anywhere in the US contact link in description! sincerely, anonymous dealer seeking revenge for all those "badabibuppi" Family Guy and Soprano memes.
- tannhaeuser 6y agoWhat are Bucatini? At my place, they have Spaghetti/Spaghettini, Linguine (more porous), Macheroni (pre-cut tubes with large holes to suck up sauce), Penne/Rigatoni/Parpadelle (for Carbonara), Fusilli (or the slightly smaller Girandole) with a lot of surface for Goulash-like sauces, Farfalle (for soups), and German-style pasta like Bandnudeln (Penne with eggs), Schupfnudeln and Spätzle/Knöpfle though the latter are simple to prepare from fresh eggs and flour. Sometimes also Greek Khritaraki (resembling rice) and Trofie Liguri, and of course ready-made Gnocchi, Tagliatelle, and Ravioli.
- toyg 6y agoThey are thicker spaghetti with a hole (“buco” in Italian) running through them. Typical of central Italy.
- qalmakka 6y agoIt's one Italian kind of pasta, I think there are more noodle shapes in our country than stars in the sky, probably. Even the lousiest supermarkets in Italy generally have a pasta aisle that's at least 10 metres long.
- rvba 6y agoAwful style of journalism. It could be summarized by few sentences: some brands cut production since this is not a popular product and one brand was blocked by FDA since it does not pass the US standard. Since thr author tries to make a story of what is basic journalism he even invents a (racist?) name for his source just to make the article longer. Luigi? Seriously? Also standards are standards and the mocking tone of article does not help. We dont learn if that iron level is important or not. Author probably didnt bother to contact any nutritionist / doctor. Also promotion of a brand sounds a bit like a sponsored article.
- percivalPep 6y agoWhy does the FDA mix the metric and imperial measurement system (mg/lb)? Are there other examples (liters per mile?) that people know of?
- InfiniteRand 6y agoI usually hear metric for nutritional measurements and imperial for bulk food measurements so I am assuming that’s what’s going on
- elsjaako 6y agoNo group of people uses the SI system 100%, everyone just uses what is convenient (scientists use lightyears, and europeans use km/h, not m/s). The same is true of how americans use their system. There isn't an old unit convenient for small weights of this scale, even carat is too rough, so they use mg. I don't know of any other examples of it being mixed quite like this, but I do see pressures given in "mm Hg" sometimes.
- KingOfCoders 6y agoHeard about Bucatini for the first time, went right away to the big Italian supermarket and bought some. Thanks!
- mensetmanusman 6y agoIs American food enriched too much? COVID had really highlighted how unhealthy our diet is...
- ferlp 6y agoBucatini better than tallarines?! haha
- jakub_g 6y agoSemi related: there was a major shift in pasta market during 2004 EU extension. To comply with EU regulations, companies from newly joining countries had to invest large sums to switch to a different type of wheat to keep producing. Malma (biggest Polish pasta company) took a big credit for this, unfortunately they took it in a subsidiary of an Italian bank, whose CEO was also a chairman of Barilla. The bank soon demanded instant full repayment of the credit, which bankrupted Malma. Big Pasta is as bad as any other big industry. Edit: as the comment below says, there were other factors at play around same time (reduced demand from Russia and interest rates spike) contributing.
- Hello71 6y agothis story does not sound accurate. if Malma truly had good finances before this, it could simply take out another loan at a different bank, who would presumably look at Malma's true finances and ignore this fake immediate payment. it is standard for major companies to renew their loans at different financial institutions at different rates, and a single call bankrupting a company would mean that the company was already in dire shape. this is consistent with https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/emcc/erm/factsheets/malma https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/emcc/erm/facts..., which says that the bank claims that the company was managed poorly, and the management claims that it was caused by reduced Russian demand as well as increased interest rates.
- aardvarkr 6y agoThis type of back and forth with real fact checking is exactly what I come to hacker news for. Well done!
- jakub_g 6y agoThx for the comment. The story is still more complex than this. Basically Malma had a few credits already, then Pekao proposed a unifying credit + to help with the IPO as a way to get funds for expansion, but the IPO never happened. Perhaps the timing of all those things was bad and company was too ambitious with expansion plans. But there are a few details about the bank behavior that feel off. If the company was in hopeless situation, why the bank offered the credit at all? I guess we'll never know all the accurate details.
- tssva 6y agoI just used some bucatini when making Cacio e Pepe last night. I have been able to purchase the store brand of bucatini at my local Harris Teeter without interrupt this past year. The brand is Private Selection. I don't know who makes it for them but it is imported from Italy. Harris Teeter is owned by Kroger and my understanding is the brand is available across all the Kroger owned grocery chains.
- sugarkjube 6y agoI havent seen cappellini mentioned, which I often I use for the same reason. Is cappellini not commonly available in the states?
- jimktrains2 6y agoIt's usually called "angel hair" and readily available in my experience.
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoWow, she began by prodding Big Pasta to explain the shortage, and ended up by instigating a review of Macaroni (meaning All Pasta) standard for import. She may have actually ended the import of Bucatini from DeCecco permanently! The Rule of Unintended Consequences rears its ugly head.
- goda90 6y agoIt sounded more like they want to put the US and EU(and elsewhere) standards in line with each other so that pasta can more freely move around to world.
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoWhich may mean the EU changing, or the US changing. Further together or further apart, who knows. A likely outcome of disruption is, further glitches. But lets keep our fingers crossed!
- gravitas 6y agoFor anyone unaware, the "enriched" and lack of iron being a problem is based on FDA regulations developed before WWII which is required by the FDA on certain foodstuffs in the USA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronutrient_Fortification_Programs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronutrient_Fortification_Pr...
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoAmazing, well-written, entertaining and informative. A worthy read. One takeaway: Barilla, which was once vilified for a perceived anti-gay stance (based on one offhand comment) has completely embraced human rights and now gets a perfect score from important institutions on LGBTQ issues. I'll buy their pasta again.
- briandear 6y agoIt must be exhausting to shop. You have to analyze and scrutinize each brand and determine if they meet the current requirements of the day. Is there an up-to-the-minute app or hotline one can use to check every brand of every product one purchases in real time at the shop?
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoCute. No, I just heard about their intolerance and veer slightly to the right to a different brand when facing the shelf. Not exhausting at all. Similarly I quit going to Chick Fil A. At first I'd just ask the clerk "Is this a hateful message day? I don't want to be seen as endorsing your company's hateful message." But the poor clerk didn't know how to answer, so I just walk to another shop (next door) instead. Again, no effort.
- schnable 6y agoBut are you aware of the political and cultural opinions of the owners of the brand you bought instead?
- Shivetya 6y agoVery interesting and my ignorance shows in that in my fifty odd years of life I have never encountered this type of pasta. While I understand the writing was aimed more at humor I did succumb to consumerism and went to Amazon and now my curiosity and ignorance both will be corrected
- shwoopdiwoop 6y ago“Carl’s contact did not reply, and when I called them, their phone number did that fuzzy-dial-up thing where it sounded like someone signing into AOL in 1995.” This, I believe, is a fax machine answering your call.
- dghughes 6y agoAll I can picture are Ferengi tube grubs from Star Trek.
- abeppu 6y agoI would have assumed that dry pasta of different shapes was produced with the same dough just extruded through the different dies. So a question is, does De Cecco actually use a complying dough for its other pasta shapes, and the FDA checked and blocked the only noncompliant product? Or is the stage set for there to be a shortage of cavatappi next month?
- vzaliva 6y agoCan somebody post TLDR summary for me? I am curious but do not care about the subject enough finish the article. Was it use as a straws? Or "enriched flour" classification?
- julianlam 6y agoAuthor wants bucatini, Bowen Yang also wants bucatini. Author contacts lots of people, gets caught up in a potential bucatini conspiracy. Maybe too many millennials used it as straws. Maybe competitors pushed De Cecco out of the country using the FDA guidelines, for reasons to be determined. Most likely, pasta makers cut production of specialty pasta (bucatini being one) in favour of ramping up production of your run of the mill macaronis, spaghettis, etc. due to COVID and pasta hoarding. Wait a bit, they'll come back.
- looperhacks 6y agoVery interesting article. I was quite perplexed, since I have never heard of Bucatini before, but know some sorts of pasta - at least the most popular ones. Turns out, that in Germany, these are called "Makkaroni"! (We call macaroni "Makkaroni" too)
- 404mm 6y agoI went through this a few months ago. I found some at Kroger. I missed this pasta from my youth years in Europe.
- beat 6y agoBucatini is the best pasta shape, though. Comedy always has that grain of truth in it. If you can somehow get past the great bucatini shortage of 2020, make some cacio e pepe with it. Trust me.
- CoffeeDregs 6y agoOkay. I just bought Bucatini off of Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YQ7CYWU https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YQ7CYWU (only 1 left, blah, blah)). I'm not much of a pasta eater but, damn, that was a fun read...
- chrisweekly 6y agoThis article is FANTASTIC. Maximum style points, and worthwhile content - for both entertainment and in pragmatic terms.
- withinrafael 6y agoNo shortage here in Washington state, $2.99/box at Safeway, if anyone needs an emergency shipment or something.
- Cpoll 6y agoUnrelated, but is it just me, or is this website sneakily adding tracking links? If I mouse-over or right click -> copy link, I get the correct url, but if I left click on it uBlock blocks a tracking/redirect link using https://go.redirectingat.com/ https://go.redirectingat.com/
- fortran77 6y agoWhenever any company seemingly supports "regulation" of any sort, it is usually to put a competitor at a disadvantage. This is especially true in zero-sum markets, where any dollar a competitor earns is one dollar less that you earn.
- motohagiography 6y agoWas interested until the author included their pitch in the wordcount. Is there a TL;DR;BCOMGWTF?
- hedora 6y agoImagine a world where the FDA’s Oxycontin response was as decisive and timely as their pasta nutrition enforcement.
- jokoon 6y agoIs that some plot to sell bucatinis? I have some bucatinis left, should I put them for auction?
- raldi 6y agoJust to clear it up, the point of the hole isn't because holes are great or because they absorb sauce better or anything like that. The point is just to get really thick spaghetti. If you were to attempt this without a hole, when the outside was ready to eat, the inside would still be unpleasantly crunchy. Or, if you cooked further to get to the point where the inside was properly al dente, the outside would be an overcooked mess. The only way to produce a thick, properly-cooked piece of spaghetti of consistent, uh, consistency is to remove the part in the center.