We switched to stainless steel straws at home years ago and they're great, no complaints. I've always hated paper straws, they get soggy and gross. Guess this is another reason to stop using them.
But I understand that using stainless in the food service industry wouldn't work. I would be checking inside the straws all the time cause you have to wash those things properly. Maybe they should just use pasta.
There's also a bit of a safety factor with those. You can get bumped and a plastic straw won't break a tooth or stab through you as easily as a steel straw will if you were to fall. There was a case of a woman who had died form a steel straw going into her when she fell. Sure it wouldn't be a common thing, but those freak accidents stick in my mind.
I have some silicone straws instead, flexible, easy to wash, and also easy to carry in my silverware bag on the go if I need one while at work or such.
We drive in steel boxes going at 70 mph every day and (mostly) no one complains... It always confuses me when people are worried about freak accidents happening. It's much more likely a bridge collapses under you, you fall down the stairs, or something like that than dying because you used a metal straw.
Would it matter in that case because, you're not actually eating the straw. I mean presumably you can hold raw pasta it's only if you ingest it that's a problem.