8 ms·
All the Buns Are Blank
- dogsgobork 4y agoHas anyone checked the cicada cycles? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUxMY77i0q4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUxMY77i0q4
- namuol 4y agoLooking forward to your next comment when the FDA designates cumin as an allergen and there’s a public outcry against BK’s new, blander BBQ sauce.
- amelius 4y agoThere's human hair in factory made bread. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/may/13/10-gross-ingredients-food-horsemeat-scandal https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/ma...
- danjoredd 4y agoMmm...fiber.
- draw_down 4y agoI was lucky to see Hedberg before he died much too young. One of the times I’ve laughed hardest in my life is when he said “if I stand on this mic cord and talk for a while and then let it go, you’ll hear a bunch of jokes all at once”.
- sp332 4y agoFloods knocked out a lot of the crop in India in 2022.
- noduerme 4y agoSeems odd. Trader Joe's still sells peanuts. McDonalds still uses sesame seeds on Big Mac buns. It's not as if foods stop being sold when they're classified as potential allergens.
- phnofive 4y agoYes, but a good excuse to dump them where unnecessary.
- noduerme 4y agoSure. They took away the free peanuts and blamed it on the bubble boy in 7A.
- bredren 4y agoI’m guessing they will bring back sesame seed buns. People are habitual, and sesame seed buns are well marketed. Maybe there’s some manufacturing location sesame buns can be done alongside other sesame products that is more efficient.
- crazygringo 4y agoShrinkflation? Maybe instead of making portions sneakily smaller you just get rid of the extras. Watch out, it'll be the sprinkles on cupcakes next...
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y agoYeah, but wasn't McDonalds the company that sold their fries to Hindus and assured them they were vegetarian even while frying them in beef tallow? McDonalds never struck me as a company that cares very much.
- JoeAltmaier 4y agoThat was dishonest. Fortunately, it probably didn't matter at all? Because there's not an evil spirit that condemns folks who eat beef products even by accident.
- noduerme 4y agoEvil spirits can operate sort of like pychosomatic illnesses though, right? If someone tells you that you just ate a parasite-infested human brain, are you not going to start freaking the fuck out every time you see a sun spot or have a weird dream? Feeding X to someone who worships X without their consent or knowledge is basically dooming them to a lifetime of fear.
- phnofive 4y agoRelated: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34830649 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34830649 Doesn't totally answer the question, they had to update the packaging anyway. To Mr. Hedburg's point, I'm sure no one misses them.
- bredren 4y agoAt first I thought this was a shrinkflation thing. But the grocery’s internal notes in the product attribute the change to the FDA ruling sesame a major food allergen. Anyone allergic to sesame? Here’s a direct link to FDA’s announcement, which includes mention of the January 1st, 2023 new product labeling requirement. https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/allergic-sesame-food-labels-now-must-list-sesame-allergen https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/allergic-sesa... The 9 major allergens are now: milk, eggs, fish, such as bass, flounder, cod, Crustacean shellfish, such as crab, lobster, shrimp tree nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, pecans peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame
- Tangurena2 4y agoIn some places, it is shrinkflation. At Walmart, the baked-in-the-store bread with sesame seeds on top runs $1.78. Without the seeds, $1.48. February of 2022, both loaves cost $1.00.
- thewebcount 4y ago> Anyone allergic to sesame? I am. I'm lucky in that I'm not anaphylactic to it, but it causes me other problems. I was able to eat sesame for decades, then one day, after having a bunch of other issues, I went to the doctor and they tested me for a bunch of stuff and a bunch of stuff I could previously eat without issue, I'm now allergic to. It really sucks, though it's better than if it caused anaphylaxis.
- jimmygrapes 4y agoFYI this reads like you were fine with sesame until you went to the doctor for something else, and you came away with an allergy to sesame. Maybe that's what you meant, but that would be even scarier to me than "I discovered I had developed an allergy to sesame as a consequence of other issues"!
- Spivak 4y agoOne of my good friends has a sesame allergy and this law has backfired spectacularly for her. She basically can't buy bread now because at our local Kroger every brand has started purposely adding sesame to all their stuff so they can declare it as an ingredient and avoid having to deal with cross-contamination. So now bread that was previously in practice (but not theoretically) safe for her to eat is being made specifically unsafe.
- droopyEyelids 4y agoWe're stuck in a vicious cycle with allergies - first peanuts, now sesame, and possibly eggs in the future. When kids are exposed to the above early and often, they're much less likely to develop allergies. However, to protect the allergic, peanuts and now sesame are removed from childcare facilities, school lunches, etc. This exposes fewer children, which increases the percent that develop the allergy, requiring the allergen to be removed from more products & places people eat! Who knows if it applies to these buns, but it's an interesting situation we're stuck with. https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/01/10/peanut-allergy-early-exposure-isg-key-to-prevention/ https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/01/10/peanut-allergy-earl...
- readthenotes1 4y agoparents can do this. of course, there are a whole lot reasons why parents don't. what is that old joke--we need a license to drive a car but not to make a baby.
- sbierwagen 4y agoLooks like you added an extra g to that url. Corrected version: https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/01/10/peanut-allergy-early-exposure-is-key-to-prevention/ https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/01/10/peanut-allergy-earl...
- yongjik 4y agoI'm not totally sure if it works like that. I grew up in Korea, where peanuts are consumed but not much: I never even heard of peanut butter growing up. Interestingly, peanut allergies are also rare: again, I don't think I heard about it growing up. Move to the US, where peanuts and peanut butter are everywhere, and suddenly I'm responsible for checking whether my kids' snacks contain peanuts because someone in the class might be allergic to it!
- LeonB 4y agoThe study linked above says that exposing kids to peanuts lowers the chance of them developing peanut allergy — and people (including the authors of that article) tend to make the faulty assumption that this means peanut allergy is caused by not being exposed to peanuts early enough. As you’ve highlighted this would imply that cultures where there are no peanuts would be filled with peanut allergies — but that’s not the case. I suspect that there’s a cross reactivity going on. Infants are exposed to an allergen and their immune system develops a good response for it. That response also applies to peanuts, unnecessarily. Had they been exposed to both peanuts and the true allergen then their immune system would’ve learned to discriminate. A similar example — some US citizens are exposed to poison Ivy. They develop a stronger and stronger response after multiple exposures. Later (as a consequence) they are also allergic to Mango because Mango has some kind of similarity to Poison Ivy, from the immune system’s point of view. The Mango allergy could be reduced if they had been also exposed to mango… but mango isn’t the problem — Poison Ivy is!
- KennyBlanken 4y ago> As I jabbed my finger at that laggy touchscreen, a helpful employee asked if he could assist me instead. I explained the predicament, and I saw his reality give out as well. Now we were both adrift in a sea of confusion. Nope, you saw him engage Retail Worker Droid Mode, where their soul leaves their body.
- labster 4y agoBuns for the People! We deserve the buns with all the nice toppings for the same price as regular buns.
- bentobean 4y agoSesame seeds are a right - not a privilege.
- arh68 4y agoThey hardly had any sesame seeds to begin with. Big Marty's still have a ludicrous amount. I guess it's all or nothing.
- mhb 4y agoNew label law has unintended effect: Sesame in more foods https://apnews.com/article/sesame-allergies-label-b28f8eb3dc846f2a19d87b03440848f1 https://apnews.com/article/sesame-allergies-label-b28f8eb3dc... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34830917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34830917
- thaeli 4y agoThis reminds me of the reason Five Guys has open containers of peanuts prominently displayed in their stores: they fry in peanut oil. Ironically, peanut oil doesn't have the allergen that triggers most peanut allergies, but explaining that is difficult, so they just went all-in with the free peanuts everywhere branding instead.
- puffoflogic 4y ago> peanut oil doesn't have the allergen that triggers most peanut allergies Facts like that are completely irrelevant before a judge and jury, so their position is understandable and probably for the best (for them).
- conro1108 4y agoI don’t understand. Why would the suppliers change the recipe to _add_ sesame? Is it not just that they accepted the “may contain sesame” label instead of removing (or proving the lack of) sesame?
- Dylan16807 4y ago"may contain" is legally meaningless, apparently. You either follow difficult procedures to avoid cross-contamination, or you make it an ingredient. There is no option in between.
- derefr 4y agoYou could add a homeopathically-diluted 1/2^256 fraction of sesame essential oil. At that point, the FDA would likely never accept the claim that it isn't an ingredient; and yet there literally won't be any in there to hurt anyone.
- ed25519FUUU 4y agoThere’s always 2nd-order affects to removing allergens in food. In 2000 the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended parents wait until 3 years to introduce peanuts. 17 years later they dramatically reversed the guidance and admitted it probably was at least partly responsible for the meteoric rise of peanut allergies in America. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6157280/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6157280/
- AlanYx 4y agoThat paper is fascinating, not just because of the discussion of peanut ingestion and allergies. I was unaware that moisturizing eczema outbreaks in very young infants reduces their lifetime chance of developing peanut and other food allergies, nor of the link between eczema and risks of developing a peanut allergy.
- rhacker 4y agoWe'll I'll say one thing, I'm glad soy is reported in the "contains" area now. If I accidentally buy a soy product my wife is basically screaming at me after eating it (out of her mind). Then after she finds out I bought soy she screams at me again (this time in her right mind). Don't buy soy guys, it's a fucking estrogenic nightmare at home.
- 1101010010 4y ago> Don't buy soy guys, it's a fucking estrogenic nightmare at home. Phytoestrogen is very different than the literal estrogen and resulting molecular mimicry found in animal products - the real nightmare.
- Fatnino 4y agoYour wife sounds wonderful
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- russdill 4y agoThat's not quite the conclusion I reached from the comment.
- drewg123 4y agoI had a misdiagnosed sesame allergy and I spent decades irritated by having to pull off the seeds or ask for 2 bottom buns. I’m thrilled to see more seedless options What I’ve always wondered: What exactly do these seeds add to the experience? I never really got the point of sesame seeds. Now that I can eat them again I still don’t get it.
- astura 4y agoI love them - they add a really nice taste and a bit of texture.
- croisillon 4y agogrowing up in the white-bread baguette loving country, i experienced my first real variety of bread with 13 at a youth hostel in Bavaria ; i can’t begin to describe the incredible taste of sesame buns and how i grieved for that taste afterwards
- toast0 4y agoOn hamburger buns, seasame seeds are usually pretty sparse, but add a little bit of texture, and if the seads get heated enough when the buns are toasted, sometimes a bit stronger flavor. On other breads, sometimes there's enough density that you get a real flavor from the seeds.
- bombcar 4y agoMy joke is they add texture for grip so the burger doesn't slide out of your hand. But they do seem to make the bun a bit "higher class" somehow.
- russdill 4y agoIt's 99% visual appeal.