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Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

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Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#111

Post by ben_w »

Scoundreller wrote: post #26
mewse-hn wrote: post #6

At the beginning of the article I was thinking surely there are more important things to write about, but it dives down a pretty absurd rabbit hole. Especially funny is when the pasta spokesperson begins commiserating that the reporter is making more work for them.

It's a good point though. Why/how is something unsafe for an American, but safe for an Italian or Spaniard? Differing regulations and standards between countries usually makes no sense and just harms the consumer. How is a Volvo made for the Swedish market unsafe on Canadian roads? EU and Canada recently signed a trade agreement so that they won't tariff eachothers' cars, but consumers still can't buy a car from a Eu…

Different product, but eggs make an interesting example of why:

Both USA and UK markets take steps to avoid salmonella. The method the USA requires the eggs to be refrigerated, the method the UK uses effectively requires that they are not (at least not until you get them home, once you start you can’t stop).

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/09/11/336330502/wh...

Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#112

Post by jsinai »

ljf wrote: post #65
freeone3000 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are various regulatory trade-offs between safety and cost of compliance. For instance: Cars sold as new in Canada require daytime running lights and yellow rear turn signals, due to extended periods of low visibility. While the running lights are a requirement in Sweden, they aren't in Poland or many other European countries. There's been some effort on standardizing between US and Canada since 2016, which woul…

For those who haven't been to the US, I was blown away that some cars use brake lights as the turn indicator - good video on the set up (and issues): https://youtu.be/O1lZ9n2bxWA

I was confused the first time I saw this in the US. Thanks for sharing the video, but nonetheless I’m still surprised that something as common sense as amber vs red lights for different functions is still something US-bound models fail to adopt. As the video explains cost saving must not longer be an issue, so I guess it is regulatory inertia.

Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#113

Post by wiradikusuma »

pkos98 wrote: post #103

Hey folks, European chiming in here. If you are serious about bucatini, shoot me a DM and we can discuss importing that precious golden Ambrosia into the US of A, maybe declared as 'alimentary paste', drinking straw - or even use 'the Mexican route' to import it, if you know what I mean. I have to go now, my pasta is ready.

HN doesnt support DM, I think you should put your email or Twitter handle in your profile :)

Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#114

Post by nemetroid »

hef19898 wrote: post #81
freeone3000 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are various regulatory trade-offs between safety and cost of compliance. For instance: Cars sold as new in Canada require daytime running lights and yellow rear turn signals, due to extended periods of low visibility. While the running lights are a requirement in Sweden, they aren't in Poland or many other European countries. There's been some effort on standardizing between US and Canada since 2016, which woul…

All new EU models have daytime running lights and yellow turn lights. What ever is a requirement in Sweden is basically an EU one as well. Thanks to standardized EU certifications. Which is a good thing, mostly!

It’s true that EU regulation on this topic was harmonized in 2011. However, the harmonization actually loosened the Swedish requirements in several ways, particularly with regard to rear lights, which previously were required to be always on.

Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#115

Post by RobertoG »

sincerely wrote: post #87
mongol wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see! I was curious what made the clock go backwards, seemed like a very interesting plot element!

Murakami is more magic realism than scifi, so if you're looking for explanations for the weird happenings in his books you often end up out of luck

I remember a feeling of being dreaming while reading the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. The plot have the same logic than dreams.

It's certainly not science fiction but I loved it.

Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#117

Post by [deleted] »

Scoundreller wrote: post #35
freeone3000 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are various regulatory trade-offs between safety and cost of compliance. For instance: Cars sold as new in Canada require daytime running lights and yellow rear turn signals, due to extended periods of low visibility. While the running lights are a requirement in Sweden, they aren't in Poland or many other European countries. There's been some effort on standardizing between US and Canada since 2016, which woul…

> over the color of a piece of plastic It isn't even about the colour (which is trivial to control with software and 8 extra cents in LEDs), but about the colour of the plastic. That's the dumb thing that proves it's about protectionism. Same with DRL: it's controllable in software. Meanwhile, Canada lets you import any >17 year old hunk of junk from anywhere and that's somehow safe and okay (because it doesn't harm…

[deleted]

Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#119

Post by sunpar »

mullingitover wrote: post #50
Scoundreller wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good point though. Why/how is something unsafe for an American, but safe for an Italian or Spaniard? Differing regulations and standards between countries usually makes no sense and just harms the consumer. How is a Volvo made for the Swedish market unsafe on Canadian roads? EU and Canada recently signed a trade agreement so that they won't tariff eachothers' cars, but consumers still can't buy a car from a Eu…

> It's a good point though. Why/how is something unsafe for an American, but safe for an Italian or Spaniard? We don't need to wonder! They explain it right in the article: protectionism. It's not really that surprising that a lot of regulations have nothing to do with protecting the consumer and are all about protecting the parties that really matter to governments: big domestic industries. > Around World War II, Ca…

“Standards of Identity” are not in and of themselves a bad thing. If a product comes to market claiming to be one thing but it is not, it may damage the market for all other products. Imagine a tv manufacturer claiming to sell a HD tv that is not HD, for example.

In this case, the pasta industry did not want their product confused with the new noodles coming from Nissin; this was back in the days when many Americans may not have readily known the difference between pasta noodles and ramen noodles, and wondered why they were paying more for pasta than they could for ramen.

Now those rules might be perverted to suit protectionist goals, but that’s the whole art of effective hopefully minimalist regulation: it’s very hard to do.

Alternatively, it might be the fact that the pasta company in question was selling buccatini at a lower price, a competitor did an analysis, and they found that this company was saving money by skirting regulation that everyone else is complying with. And they did the right thing by forcing the FDA to apply the rules evenly to all companies.

Re: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?

#120

Post by freeone3000 »

bamboleo wrote: post #106
pietrovismara wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> enriched macaroni That must be the lamest way of defining pasta I've ever heard. Whoever named it like that doesn't deserve italian pasta (/s)

And awkward as hell too. Maccheroni is a shape of pasta, but apparently all pasta is "enriched macaroni" in the US?

Yes. Spaghetti is a type of enriched macaroni, according to the FDA.
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