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tldr: > The FDA says it currently believes the adulteration is “economically motivated.” That generally refers to ingredients being altered in order to make pro
by throwup238 3y ago
tldr: > The FDA says it currently believes the adulteration is “economically motivated.” That generally refers to ingredients being altered in order to make products appear higher in value, often so companies can produce a cheaper item and sell it at an elevated price.
From the title it sounded like there was a supervillain poisoning children for the funsies.
- iambateman 3y agotrying to squeeze an extra $0.01/pouch of profit by poisoning children is supervillain enough for me.
- throwup238 3y agoI'm using the official definition negotiated by the Office of Secret Intelligence and Guild of Calamitous Intent at the first Treaty of Tolerance Summit and I don't think this quite qualifies. This is just regular ol' villainy of the invisible hand.
- iambateman 3y ago[flagged]
- phone8675309 3y agoI tip my fedora to you, kind stranger, and I have applied your updoots to the left!
- the_gastropod 3y agoPurposely poisoning children vs simply being indifferent about poising children through your actions aren't that different, in my opinion.
- bonton89 3y agoArguably worse. If the incentive structure is setup such that (vicious psychopathic) people choose to make this kind of tradeoff, this will just keep happening since the culprit will just be replaced by another link in the same chain with the same motivations. A killer doing it for fun wouldn't have his incentives aligned with the company and wouldn't have all their resources available to hide and facilitate it continuing. Potential killers also know that they wouldn't be able to get away with it for long and would be viciously punished, whereas company leadership know they will be able diffuse responsibility and be minimally punished, if at all.
- Larrikin 3y agoPoisoning kids for money is worse than poisoning kids for fun.
- jqpabc123 3y agoNo --- more like a cinnamon supplier attempting to make his product heavier. When purchased by weight, adding lead equates to more money because the product is heavier. This is not new. Paprika has been found to be intentionally contaminated with lead oxide which is red in color. Ground turmeric has been found to be intentionally contaminated with lead chromate which is yellow in color.
- thaumasiotes 3y ago> Ground turmeric has been found to be intentionally contaminated with lead chromate which is yellow in color. In that case, the idea isn't that the lead chromate is yellow so that it can increase the weight of the spice while being safely camouflaged. The idea is that it is visually distinct and consumers prefer the brighter yellow of turmeric-with-lead to the duller yellow of non-poisonous turmeric.
- jqpabc123 3y agoIf color was all they wanted, they could have used food coloring at lower cost They chose lead chromate because it is yellow and it increases the weight.
- daveguy 3y agoThat is not a fair assessment of the supervillain-ness of this contamination. They weren't just trying to bulk up the products with inert ingredients. Their "bulk up" (to increase profit) resulted in as much a 500x the limit of lead contamination. Very much supervillain poisoning kids for profit.
- lupusreal 3y agoMost supervillains have a profit motive. Selling poisoned food to kids to make a few more dollars could easily be part of a Bond villain plot. Anyway, the executives involved deserve the death penalty (see: 2008 Chinese milk scandal)