Apparently, President Obama wouldn’t – couldn’t – eat the delicious lunch U.S. Sen. Susan Collins served Thursday, not because she’s a Republican, but because he didn’t have a food “taster” with him.

Seriously.

The Daily Caller reported Collins hosted the lunch meeting between the president and Senate Republicans and served a variety of food from her home state of Maine.

However, Obama didn’t eat a single thing.

Speaking to reporters after the luncheon, Collins said Obama wanted to eat, but couldn’t because he had no taster with him:

He looked longingly at [the food]. He honestly did look longingly at it, but apparently he has to have essentially a taster, and I pointed out to him that we were all tasters for him, that if the food had been poisoned all of us would have keeled over so, but he did look longingly at it and he remarked that we have far better food than the Democrats do, and I said that was because I was hosting.

A taster, as in a “royal taster” – or in this case, what? A presidential taster? The first taster? Would such a person be employed by the Secret Service? We know the White House calligraphers make almost $100,000 a year. Can you imagine the salary of the “taster”?

The Daily Caller noted a 2009 article from Agence France-Presse that reported a “taster” accompanied Obama to dinner in a French restaurant and actually tasted Obama’s food.

“The US Secret Service has always refused to confirm that US presidents travel with a food ‘taster’, in line with their policy of discretion on all security related issues,” AFP reported.

Read the Daily Caller article here.

Read the Agence France-Presse 2009 article here.

Listen to Collins discuss the President’s taster here:

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Janeen Capizola

"And though she be but little, she is fierce." And fun! This conservative-minded political junkie, mom of three, dancer and one-time NFL cheerleader holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science. [email protected]. Twitter: @JaneenBPR

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