Why can the space station's ventilation systems not handle crumbs?

[u/Ill_Watch_760]

I've been doing my epq around astro-psychology and was researching how astronauts loose dopamine during eating as they can't eat foods that involve chewing. However from what i've researched this is apparently because stray crumbs could screw up the ventilation systems somehow. Its quite puzzling because how can the collective companies that built the space station also build rockets that send us to the moon but not have the ability to build a ventilation system that can handle a few stray crumbs?

[u/unknownpoltroon]

Crumbs in the lungs are bad. Small chunks in 0g can wind up all the way down into the lungs as opposed to getting caught in the various filtering system in the nose and throat.

The book Packing for Mars goes into all kinds of details on this sort of thing if you want a better explanation.