about his culinary adventures for Slate). But there’s one organ he can’t legally serve: animal lungs.The U.S. Department of Agriculture banned the sale of lungs for human consumption in 1971. Reisman is hoping to flip the ban. Last month, he filed a petition with the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service office, stating that “a food being ‘gross’ is not the same as it being unsafe.”So far, Reisman’s petition has garnered 16 public comments; 15 for and 1 against.
“I’ve never seen anyone fall ill from ingesting a lung,” wrote Nicholas Napoli in a comment on Reisman’s petition. Napoli, a doctor in rural Alaska where Yup’ik cuisine features seal, walrus, and beluga whale lung, thinks the ban comes down to “unfamiliarity and fear” rather than science. Others weighed in to make the same point. In fact, the U.S. is one of the few countries that does not allow people to buy or sell lungs.
Whether eating lungs is definitively “safe” is up for debate: There’s a lack of peer-reviewed toxicology or epidemiology studies on lung consumption with which to make a definitive case one way or the other. But there’s no question that the lung ban is an oddity: Other potentially risky protein options are usually regulated, not banned. And, again, plenty of societies make lung a regular part of their diets, without obvious ramifications.
Further, animals breathe in not just microorganisms, but plenty of other things that can get trapped: wildfire smoke, car exhaust, asbestos fibers, etc. “Lungs are basically air filters,” wrote USDA veterinarian Renee Chicoine in a comment on Reisman’s petition. “Human beings should not be eating dirty air filters.” Swallowing asbestos can cause health problems, just like breathing them can.lung particulate matter, says Reisman. “Our lungs clean themselves,” he said.
Often, as consumers, we are left to weigh the risks ourselves. Think of the lead dust on cocoa beans processed near freeways (recently
No. Shouldn’t be eating any part of a sentient being.
The good people of Palermo, Sicily, have been eating pani ca meusa for ever. It's a sesame topped brioche stuffed with veal lung and spleen boiled and fried in lard, usually with ricotta. Doesn't seem to be an issue.
In Sweden, there is a dish called ”lungmos” (lung mash). But as Thore Wretman, the leading authority on Swedish gastronomy, noted, it’s now rare since it’s impossible to make in small quantities: a proper lung mash is made from the heart and both lungs of the cow…