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De Cecco reveals why there is a bucatini shortage in America
- zachberger 6y agoFor those who missed the original post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25566652 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25566652
- hnick 6y agoI loved the original article, and (spoiler) it pretty much turned out to be what was posited but they're not sure why the iron levels were low. In the way these things usually go, they decided destroying the withheld US stocks was cheaper than shipping it elsewhere for sale or (illegally?) feeding the needy. I'm wondering though, is fortification/enrichment in staples widespread? The US seems to do it a lot, but I checked in Australia and I can find only 2 cases of mandatory fortification[0] - Vitamin D for oil spreads (e.g. margarine) and vitamin B1 and folic acid for bread flour, and iodised salt in the bread. I suppose you can also include fluoridated tap water as fortification. I don't have either of those foods that often so hopefully I'm getting these nutrients elsewhere. 0: https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/nutrition/vitaminadded/Pages/default.aspx https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/nutrition/vitamina...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- DavidPeiffer 6y agoIllegally feeding the needy could well get your certifications to produce food revoked. Food is highly regulated, and by more agencies than I would have guessed. Food and Drug Administration, US Department of Agriculture (meat and eggs), plus various state agencies. Rather than going to a landfill, they may have been delivered to a farm as food for pigs, but I imagine opening hundreds of thousands of boxes wouldn't be economically viable. I work in food manufacturing. The opinions are my own and do not represent my employer.
- markdown 6y ago> The opinions are my own and do not represent my employer. Most of us on here work for someone, and our views don't represent their views. It's a given.
- codyb 6y agoI see the disclosures here fairly frequently and rather appreciate the forthrightness because they’re reminders of the ethos here and they also give a perspective and context to the rest of the comment. Sorry for the meta thread, also interested in the answer to the root comment here about food fortification. Studies have suggested that vitamin supplements may not do a great job at improving health outcomes. I wonder how adding vitamins and minerals to food compares to taking a supplement with and without a meal in terms of vitamin and miner absorption rates?
- DavidPeiffer 6y agoDisclosures are never an issue until they are, by someone who feels you were disingenuous in the discussion, or your current/former employer has a problem with what you said. I don't throw the disclosure on every single comment, but it's stated on my profile, and I do commonly add it when discussing industries I've been involved with.
- konschubert 6y agoIf you read the whole interview, it's even illegal to sell vitamin-enriched pasta in most countries of the world. That's why they had to destroy the US stock: There weren't many other places where they could sell it.
- jolmg 6y ago> I'm wondering though, is fortification/enrichment in staples widespread? The iodizing of salt comes to mind. Is that not widespread?
- gennarro 6y agoI found both articles to be underwhelming. Other brands sell this pasta shape, correct? At no point did bucatini sell out from Eataly For example. It was a fun headline of course and clearly one type of the pasta was not available, but “great shortage” was taking more than a little license. I guess it was more tongue in cheek than I initially understood?
- spaceflunky 6y agoMy personal experience is that I have been having a hell of time finding bucatini. I live the in the East Bay. I once went to 5 grocery stores (Berkeley Bowl, Monterrey Market, Safeway, Andronicos, and local italian market) all of which had NO bucatini. I just thought it had gone out of fashion and no one was stocking it. This article was very enlightening.
- lstamour 6y agoI would not have gone shopping for it without the article pointing me to its existence, but I couldn't find it at any of my local stores. If Eataly has it, I might have to brave the elements and pay too much for it, just to try it! ;-)
- codyb 6y agoIf you’re near the Eataly in the Financial District I had no problem finding some at Jubilee’s on John St a bit East from there after reading the original article. I haven’t tried the Bucatini yet but I did enjoy the Brooklyn made bronze extruded pasta I bought. At six and seven dollars a pound though it sure well better be good.
- ArchOversight 6y agohttps://www.bayviewpastasf.com https://www.bayviewpastasf.com and https://www.pastashopfresh.com https://www.pastashopfresh.com Have bucatini that is made fresh and is absolutely amazing. I found Bay View's pasta at Public Market, and it is absolutely delicious.
- 6y ago
- scurvy 6y ago"Why was iron low?" "We don't know." "It's better now?" "Yes we fixed it!" If they don't know what's wrong, how did they know what to fix? This is still fishy to me. Also, shame on the author for using the term "ratted out" when this company was selling a substandard product to Americans.
- tvphan 6y agoThey probably just poured more iron into their recipe?
- duxup 6y agoI think the person giving the interview didn't know or just didn't want to say.
- HarryHirsch 6y agoComplete failure in acceptance testing, most likely. Someone did an Annie Dookhan there.
- dreamcompiler 6y agoThose "standards" likely don't mean very much. As the original article (from December) points out, the standards were developed in the 1940s to make it harder for Japanese noodles to compete, not because of any real nutritional lack. People in other countries eat pasta that doesn't meet American "standards" and they seem to do just fine.
- scurvy 6y ago"Laws shmaws" is not a great defense.
- avalys 6y agoMy understanding is that there’s nothing objectively substandard about it - this is an arbitrary protectionist trade regulation that shouldn’t exist in the first place.
- 6y ago
- mastazi 6y agoI'm not American and I had no idea "fortified pasta" was a thing. What about organic/artisanal pasta? Do they still legally have to add iron?
- Clewza313 6y agoAs far as I can tell the rules apply only to imports, because they were explicitly designed to keep foreign noodles (ramen etc) from encroaching on "pasta".
- zerocrates 6y agoAs far as I'm aware, they're not legally required to fortify, but once it's labeled as "enriched macaroni product," it has to meet the required levels from the standard. This isn't unique to imports: standards of identity apply equally to domestic products. It's just that the FDA has tools at its disposal to block things at the border, which they used here.
- kome 6y agoI claim no expertise, but from what I got reading articles on the matter, pasta in the US should be modified (fortified) to comply with regulations.
- zerocrates 6y agoI certainly could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm not. There's a standard for both "enriched macaroni product" and just "macaroni product." I don't believe anything requires you to choose the enriched one, other than the fact that doing any enrichment kicks you over to the "enriched" standard and you're then locked into at least a list of several mandatory enrichments. Some states have laws requiring enrichment of flour, bread, pasta, etc. though, and that I think is what's happening with even importers opting for enrichment: it's necessary to have access to a nationwide market.
- eeZah7Ux 6y ago
- supernova87a 6y agoWhat a shame they had to waste the pasta for being slightly less than the iron nutrition guidelines.
- etaioinshrdlu 6y agoIt's really quite preposterous. Destroy perfectly good staple food because it's lacking a micronutrient. It's not like it was toxic or anything.
- _ZeD_ 6y agoThe funny thing is that in my italian eyes, De Cecco is in the "meh" quality of pasta... btw: the "fortified pasta" is something I cannot stand. You american should lobby to make "normal pasta" the only one available.
- cortesoft 6y agoDoes the pasta really taste different because of the iron fortification?
- samuli 6y agoIt does, but depending on the sauce (or no sauce) you might not taste the difference.
- bezout 6y agoBarilla for the win
- eafkuor 6y agoBarilla is like Nutella. It's just the most popular, not the best
- watt 6y agoYou are the second person not sharing which brand they think actually is good. I read only negativity, nothing positive here. I happen to like De Cecco, and it's the one they sell at the local italian specialties store (Berlin).
- eafkuor 6y agoI mentioned Rummo in my other reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26074834 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26074834 Rummo is great, their penne are almost impossible to overcook. Agnesi is also a good brand. I'm sure you can find both in Germany - I'm able to easily find both in Poland.
- Scoundreller 6y agoHave had no problems finding Made-in-Italy La Molisana-branded Bucatini at my discount grocery story in Canada. It’s even on sale at Amazon.ca right now, $1 (or ~US$0.75) for 450g: https://www.amazon.ca/-/fr/Molisana-Bucatini-N-12-450/dp/B07N21XB55/ https://www.amazon.ca/-/fr/Molisana-Bucatini-N-12-450/dp/B07...
- BoorishBears 6y agoDoes the FDA have jurisdiction in Canada?
- legerdemain 6y agoThis... is just De Cecco piggy-backing on the buzz from the original article to do some self-promotion, isn't it? Q: "Can you speculate on who reported your product to the regulators?" A: "De Cecco is committed to providing consumers with the highest quality of pasta product. We do not wish to speculate on this topic." Q: "Why was your pasta deficient in iron?" A: "De Cecco is committed to providing consumers with the highest quality of pasta product. We do not know." Q: "How soon can we expect to see your pasta in stock again?" A: "De Cecco is committed to providing consumers with the highest quality of pasta product. Some time in the future! We look forward to seeing you in the kitchen!"
- kome 6y ago"Q: "Why was your pasta deficient in iron?" To be fair they answered to that and it was quite interesting, it's just some American (and Israeli, and Tanzanian) idiosyncrasy. In other markets they cannot even sell modified pasta.
- legerdemain 6y agoHere's the actual answer from the interview: "To be honest, I don’t know. [...] It’s a really immaterial divergence compared to the metrics, the range. [...] I don’t have any facts to substantiate that, but to your question, why we had this problem with bucatini, I think it’s the shape — but we don’t know."
- kome 6y agoBut also: Why wouldn’t you be able to sell that in Italy or elsewhere? GC: The short answer is that the vitamin-enriched pasta can be sold only in the U.S. market and some other countries like Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Israel, etc., as far as I know. As to the iron-deficient bucatini, we concluded it was economically less burdensome to destroy the items here in the U.S.
- jfengel 6y agoI read that as the reporter repeatedly asking the same question in hopes of getting something exciting, and the rep repeatedly giving the same non-answer because he didn't know the real answer. It's not so much "piggy-backing on the buzz" as "my job is to say positive things about the product, which I will do in every sentence, but I have no more information to give you".