[Avodah] Girl Scout cookies

[David Riceman]

Micha Berger wrote:
> To second RnTK's comment... I do not know why people assume that <2%
> necessarily implies <1.66% (1/60 displayed to 3 digits lechumrah). US
> companies have a vested interest in getting something unpleasant under
> the legal limit for reporting, 2%. I therefore think it's possible
> many products have ingredients at the 1.9% mark or so.
>   
I thought the legal limit was 1%.  In any case, whey is listed on this 
product (and is not particularly unpleasant), so that argument is 
irrelevant.

As to "the 1.9% mark", there is an interesting problem which I only 
hinted at.  Hazal assume that we can't taste anything less than 1/60.  
It should follow that anything under that margin is there for some 
reason other than flavor.  Whey is, at best, at the borderline (no more 
than 1/50), and it has a fairly weak flavor anyway, so why would a cost 
cutting company put it in at all?

I think, as I said in my previous post, that it's a (more substantial) 
ingredient in the chocolate coating and not in the cookie, which is why 
I find this an interesting question.  I suspect, in that case, that 
whether it's greater or less than 1/60 is in fact irrelevant, and the 
proper question is what percentage of the chocolate is it.

David Riceman