Reading comprehension: meaning of "assume a little extra buffer of paranoia built in"?

Question

I'm reading *The Fermented Man* by Derek Dellinger. He talks about U.S. government's regulations about cheese making. For example, cheese can be sold to the public only if it's been aged a minimum of sixty days. Then he says:> The government’s thinking here seemed fairly sound. **One can always> assume a little extra buffer of paranoia built in** when it comes to> anything related to public health, but sixty days of fermentation, two> solid months, I didn’t think that sounded unreasonable.I'm confused about the part in bold. I looked up the definitions of assume, buffer, paranoia and built in. But I still couldn't figure out what it means. The sentence just seems very indirect to me. Can anybody explain its meaning for me?

Answer 1

The overall excerpt is him talking about the government’s regulations about how long cheese has to be aged before being sold, and his reaction is that he thinks that seems like a reasonable amount of time. The part you’re confused by comes between him saying two very similar things- the government’s thinking (about the time) seems fairly sound, [confusing clause], but he doesn’t think the time is unreasonable. From that structure we can guess that the part that’s confusing you is related to how much time the government requires, since he states his opinion that it is reasonable on both sides of the clause. We can also guess that it is acknowledging something that someone might say to disagree with him, because he says “but [...] I didn’t think it sounded unreasonable,” implying that what comes right before might make someone think the length of time isn’t reasonable.

So when he says, “One can always assume a little extra buffer of paranoia built in,” we know he’s talking about how much time the government requires, and he’s giving a reason that some people might consider it too long or too short (but he still doesn’t think it sounds unreasonable). A buffer is something that prevents things from touching each other, or a cushion (“I’m leaving fifteen minutes early so I have a cushion in case of traffic”), so an extra buffer here means that they built in (or added) extra time, so they don’t accidentally sell cheese that hasn’t been aged long enough to be safe. “One can always assume” means we’re treating this as a fact- we don’t even question it, we just assume it’s always true. So far, that tells us that he thinks the government always adds extra time to things relating to public health (like how long cheese has to be aged to be safe to eat).

If you googled paranoia you probably saw it described as a mental health condition, but it’s also used to describe general fear, concern, or mistrust. The government is worried about allowing something to be sold that will make people sick, so they are extra careful, just in case.

He thinks 60 days sounds reasonable, even though we can assume the government added (built in) a little extra time (a buffer) because they’re always worried (paranoid) about the public’s health.