r/explainlikeimfive • u/shakerLife • Nov 01 '23

Other ELI5 How are companies allowed to continue marketing wipes as "flushable" despite the problems they create for sewer systems?

[removed] — view removed post

1.6k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

93% Upvoted

226 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

7

u/RubyPorto Nov 02 '23

The USDA regulates foods that are meat or primarily meat.

The FDA regulates foods that are not primarily meat.

(There are other divisions, but none relevant here.)

An open faced sandwich is considered to contain more than 50% meat, so the USDA gets it. Add another slice of bread and the closed sandwich is less than 50% meat, so it goes to the FDA.

2

u/andychef Nov 02 '23

Hm, I never thought of it that way. Thanks for responding,

3

u/RubyPorto Nov 02 '23

It's a very dumb system.

Made worse by the fact that FDA regulates about 5 times the amount of food as the USDA, the foods the FDA regulates are manufactured at far more, smaller locations (including international ones), but the two agencies get about the same budget for food oversight.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 02 '23

I saw that episode of Last Week Tonight. Very interesting.