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Thread: Bugs in your dinner?

  1. #1
    Imapeach's Avatar
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    Thumbs down Bugs in your dinner?

    Here's an odd question.

    Is there any particular kind of foods that one should be wary of bugs living inside when purchased? For example, I just discovered that a bunch of my (very expensive) organic medjool dates have been used as homes for some hyper-pooping worm critters. Not Happy to say the least and would like to know for future reference if there's any food in particular (I assume fruits, mostly) that really should be checked for tenants before being bought?

    I also found a worm in a lychee once. Now I always check them before I make a worm smoothie!

  2. #2
    AR Activist Roxy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    I had that happen to me not so long ago with a box of dates too!

  3. #3
    frugivorous aubergine's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    How would you know if the dates had already been chopped up? This has put me right off my muesli

  4. #4
    Imapeach's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Even if they're chopped up, you might be able to see the bits of poo on the inside part of the date. At first I thought it was just bits of the date that had dried up on the inside, seeing as it was the same colour as the rest of the date... kinda like "date dandruff". But the reason why it was the same colour was because it was pooped out date! And of course, living on nothing but dates, the critters will get the proverbial sh*ts and make a BIG mess.

    don't mean to be a scare monger here... it's never happened to me before with dates

  5. #5
    Juice's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    I've opened a box of raisins with worms once.

  6. #6
    cedartree cedarblue's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    i'm fast going off dried fruits...

  7. #7
    Haniska's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    I bought a bunch of organic kale one time that was just COVERED with little grey dying/cold? bugs. Looked like something that would eat other bugs that would eat the plants. I assume.
    it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble

  8. #8
    Knolishing Pob's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Not much you can do about it with some foods, there are always going to be levels of insects and droppings, rodents and fur and droppings, and rot and mould in mass produced foods.

    There are maximum levels that are permitted for those sorts of contaminants in the US. Paprika was allowed high levels of insect in it I believe.

  9. #9
    I go on a bit Jamie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    you know what, if I accidently ate a bug without worrying about it, I might not worry too much about not being vegan. It's just an accident on both parts. Wormy didn't mean to be eaten, and I didn't mean to eat a worm. I would just hope it was a veggie worm, but even if not, hopefully it's small enough not to cause me any problems.

    Although the only time I've had anything like that happen (that I know of!!) was in a salad in an airline meal... I had some leaves on a fork about to pop in my mouth when I noticed a little petrified bug frozen onto a stalk. I felt sorry for the poor bugger

  10. #10
    perfect RedWellies's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Some figs have a dead tiny wasp inside. I've stopped eating figs, not because I might eat the wasp (it's rotted away by then anyway) but because some farmers exploit the wasps. See here....

    http://waynesword.palomar.edu/pljune99.htm

    I think there's a thread about this somewhere.
    "Do what you can with what you have where you are."
    - Theodore Roosevelt

  11. #11
    Nadine's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    I've found bugs in dates before too- a few times! On the plus side at least it means the food hasn't been saturated with pesticide making it inedible for other creatures! Maybe cause I grow organic stuff on my allotment (and get used to carefully picking off insects); I find it odd when I buy organic fruit & veg that shows no evidence of bugs!

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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    One time, I had a tun of raisins in the cupboard. It seemed to grow bugs!! After that, I started refridgerating dried fruit and it hasn't ever happened again. Maybe it's safer that way.

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    Juice's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    How do raisins buried in a cabinet get worms anyway? It's not like the worms crawled from my backyard, through the kitchen, up the wall, and into the cabinet. So they're in the box to begin with somehow? Their eggs, perhaps?

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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    I once saw this program on the discovery channel and i meant to comment on it a while ago and it was about weird foods eaten all over the world blah blah... anyways at the end it said basically all people consume insects on a daily basis, and that food that is sold legally or whatever is allowed to have below a certain number of rodent hairs, insect eggs... it really stressed me out for a while

  15. #15
    I go on a bit Jamie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    urgh yeah some guy who I vaugely knew once told me that he worked in a flour mill in South America or something (??) and that there were so many cockroaches and stuff about on the floor that got into the grains and ended up ground up in the flour and that was why they had to bleach it white, to hide the bug blood, or something like that.... it was actually his arguament for 'not getting' vegans and vegetarians!! Oh yeah, so out of our control we've got crushed up roaches in our flour, oh so we might as well just eat every other meat going cause of that then!!

    But I'm sure he said it was SA, so maybe with a bit of hope the flour we buy over here might be better. I buy wholemeal flour and I haven't seen anything unusual looking in there, just powder and bran...!

    I know it's disgusting about rat hairs and things though.... it is totally offputting and you may never want to eat anything again... the way I cope with it (although I haven't seen that program, wouldn't watch it for fear of never eating again!) is I think, rats aren't that bad - they are lovely. And at least they only have such tiny little short hairs, that we could eat it and not even realise. And they probably only shed it off, so it's not hurting thing. It's whole rats in food that I would be really concerned about!! Bugs in food is gross though I suppose again though it's probably small and accidental.

    I'm really new to buying organic food and ATM it's basically supermarket and always packaged, but I know when we move abroad and I will search out farmers markets that I'd have to give everything a good wash when I get home. Has anyone used those commercial fruit & veg washes that are around?? Are they any good??

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    Haniska's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    There are also these little bugs called "Weebles" that lay their eggs in flour and will eventually hatch if you keep the flour too long. And yes, the whole "how did the fruit flies get in my house?" question does not have a pleasant answer. I figure the reason the ones in the fridge didn't get them is because they couldn't hatch. There is nothing to be done about it. Or, maybe you can buy foods that were heavily covered in pesticides WHen I lived in WV, for some reason moths would be in the flour and they would hatch out in the grocery store. I guess they made their cocoons in it? They would be floundering around on the floor and my grandmother would step on them? I asked her why and she didn't have an answer.
    it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble

  17. #17
    CATWOMAN sandra's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Yes, Haniska, I've come across these wee 'Weebles' before, I found some in flour I had one time, they were crawling about, I contacted the company and they had the cheek to tell me it was because I didn't clean my cupboards out! I am very careful when it comes to washing my cupboards out! I had a suspicion they had something to do with the flour though. I didn't know what to do with them so I emptied the flour in the back garden hoping they could survive out there, I didn't have the heart to throw them in the bin, they were walking around!

  18. #18
    Haniska's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    OMG! They told you it was your fault?? The HORS!
    it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble

  19. #19
    CATWOMAN sandra's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Yes, cheek of them, they made me feel really inadequate! I'm so glad you've come across these wee critters as I was beginning to think it was my fault, like I was setting up some kind of wee breeding farm for them!

  20. #20
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Quote Juice
    How do raisins buried in a cabinet get worms anyway? It's not like the worms crawled from my backyard, through the kitchen, up the wall, and into the cabinet. So they're in the box to begin with somehow? Their eggs, perhaps?
    Lol Juice. Yeh the eggs are in the food, which then hatch a while later in your cupboard. They're not real 'worms', they're the larvae of insects.

    Quote Haniska
    There are also these little bugs called "Weebles" that lay their eggs in flour and will eventually hatch if you keep the flour too long.
    Weebles!??? You mean Weevils? Weevils are little tiny beetles.
    Aren't these weebles?!

  21. #21
    Juice's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Thanks, Cherry. I'm glad worms haven't developed super powers to walk through sealed items and levitate.

  22. #22
    Cake Fairy Cherry's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    hehe no, not quite

  23. #23
    CATWOMAN sandra's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Cherry, I'm as bad as Haniska, I was calling them 'weebles' I will really have to stop drinking so much wine, that's my excuse anyway!

  24. #24
    Cake Fairy Cherry's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Lol. Weevils are cute. Weeble kind of suits them

    I like their long 'noses'

  25. #25
    ♥♥♥ Tigerlily's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    I find a lot of local produce has bugs, compared to pre-packaged, pre-washed stuff that comes from a million miles away.

    Lettuces, spinach, other leafy greens, broccoli, etc, seem to have a lot of bugs in them. I found a live lady bug in a pint of strawberries once. I realeased her/him outside.
    Peace, love, and happiness.

  26. #26
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    i know this isnt the same... but someone at work found a dead fly inside a grape. the good thing was that the grapes were in the fridge to be sold to customers. but this person took them home and ate them. then found the fly.

    if a customer had bought the grapes and eaten them & found the fly, we could have been majorly sued/shut down :| yet it wasnt even our fault, it was that of our supplier.


    at work once, as well, i found a little bug inside a lettuce we had had delivered. i got a fright and it fell on the floor. i didnt wanna hurt it, but my boss was like "kill it!" and i said no cos i felt bad and she goes "well it couldnt care about you, so why should you care about it?" bitch.

  27. #27
    CATWOMAN sandra's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Quote Cherry
    Lol. Weevils are cute. Weeble kind of suits them

    I like their long 'noses'
    They are cute aren't they, the time I had them in flour I thought they were tiny specks of something and then one of them started walking about, I felt so sorry for the poor wee things. I didn't know what to do so I just put the bag of flour in the garden, do you think I did the right thing?

  28. #28
    CATWOMAN sandra's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Quote lozza
    i know this isnt the same... but someone at work found a dead fly inside a grape. the good thing was that the grapes were in the fridge to be sold to customers. but this person took them home and ate them. then found the fly.

    if a customer had bought the grapes and eaten them & found the fly, we could have been majorly sued/shut down :| yet it wasnt even our fault, it was that of our supplier.


    at work once, as well, i found a little bug inside a lettuce we had had delivered. i got a fright and it fell on the floor. i didnt wanna hurt it, but my boss was like "kill it!" and i said no cos i felt bad and she goes "well it couldnt care about you, so why should you care about it?" bitch.
    Yes, Iozza, she sounds nasty, what a silly thing to say!
    I once heard a neighbour of mine in his back garden saying after he deliberately stood on an insect, 'There you go Mr bug, great life you had' and I thought 'What a pathetic human being you are', I sat in the sun daydreaming that a giant alien would appear and step on him!

  29. #29
    lozza's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Quote sandra
    Yes, Iozza, she sounds nasty, what a silly thing to say!
    I once heard a neighbour of mine in his back garden saying after he deliberately stood on an insect, 'There you go Mr bug, great life you had' and I thought 'What a pathetic human being you are', I sat in the sun daydreaming that a giant alien would appear and step on him!
    hehe, funny imagery silly man!

  30. #30
    gorillagorilla Gorilla's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    when i buy lettuces or cabbages etc. from my local wholefood store they're always absolutely covered in aphids on the inside. i don't really know what to do about them so i don't buy them from there anymore. i found a big spider hiding in some broccoli once too.
    'The word gorilla was derived from the Greek word Gorillai (a "tribe of hairy women")'

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    Haniska's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Quote Cherry
    Lol Juice. Yeh the eggs are in the food, which then hatch a while later in your cupboard. They're not real 'worms', they're the larvae of insects.



    Weebles!??? You mean Weevils? Weevils are little tiny beetles.
    Aren't these weebles?!
    YAY! "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down! The Playschool Weebles farm!"
    Hehehe.

    As for the posts about buying prepackaged produce to avoid bugs, I do the same, but of course that just means the company rinsed them themselves Gah. Another reason I find it uneasy being chreesly.
    it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble

  32. #32
    CATWOMAN sandra's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Quote Haniska
    YAY! "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down! The Playschool Weebles farm!"
    Hehehe.

    As for the posts about buying prepackaged produce to avoid bugs, I do the same, but of course that just means the company rinsed them themselves Gah. Another reason I find it uneasy being chreesly.
    Haniska, I love that song, they used to sing that to my friend at work sometimes, I don't know why, she found it funny too!

  33. #33
    Eating Wildflower's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    I find bugs in dry goods like flour and pasta sometimes. It sucks cause once you buy a bag of flour with those weeble weevel things they spread all over your house and you are stuck with them until winter. It happened a few years ago to me with whole wheat flour and tiny little ant like things which then infested all the rest of my food promptly. And it has happened to my mom with white flour.

    Recently I bought I huge tomato with a dead worm in it...

  34. #34
    I go on a bit Jamie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    yeah I feel the indecision as to what to do with (live) bugs - I always thought when I started buying organic/farm produce that was likely to have bugs that I could wash them off... but now you mention it that is killing them. You can't really just leave it on a table outside for them to move out of naturally....!

    I'm sure I've read somewhere that keeping flour in the freezer avoids bugs, but I'm not sure if this kills them or just keeps them from hatching.

  35. #35
    lozza's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    today i tried to explain to my supervisor why i dont like killing bugs. (she would happily do it) because all creatures are equal and she looked at me with a puzzled look on her face & she was like "why do you care?" and i tried to say to her that a bee has the same value as a dog or a cat, for example.

    she still didnt understand

  36. #36
    Haniska's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Quote Jamie
    yeah I feel the indecision as to what to do with (live) bugs - I always thought when I started buying organic/farm produce that was likely to have bugs that I could wash them off... but now you mention it that is killing them. You can't really just leave it on a table outside for them to move out of naturally....!

    I'm sure I've read somewhere that keeping flour in the freezer avoids bugs, but I'm not sure if this kills them or just keeps them from hatching.
    It's likely that it keeps them from hatching. And then we eat them. Wow, another reason I'm glad I seriously reduced my grains.
    it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble

  37. #37

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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    I've had green worms in my dry pasta a couple of times, so did my grandma, she now keeps every single dry food item in the deep freezer, she has 3 large size deep freezers, everything from pepper to pasta to flour to crackers goes in the deep freeze.

    I wash my fresh stuff carefully and check dry goods, I know it kills bugs when I wash them down the sink off the veggies, but thats one of the places I have to draw the line.

  38. #38
    Festival Buddy Frank's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Quote RedWellies View Post
    Some figs have a dead tiny wasp inside. I've stopped eating figs, not because I might eat the wasp (it's rotted away by then anyway) but because some farmers exploit the wasps. See here....

    http://waynesword.palomar.edu/pljune99.htm

    I think there's a thread about this somewhere.
    I was happily reading here and eating my dried figs....!

    I looked at the link and it was quite interesting.

    I wouldn't really fancy eating any more, just on the basis that a female fig wasp might be in there (doubt I would find one in a dried fig anyway).

    I've always kept dried food in a cupboard, never thought of using a fridge before.

    Before I start on the dried sultanas i've got in the cupboard - has anyone got a horror story I need to hear?!

  39. #39
    Abe Froman Risker's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    Two that I find prevalent are maggots in chestnuts and a larvae of some sort in blackcurrants (Not sure what it is now, I know I identified it and posted about it in the garden thread)

    I've got fruit flies in my kitchen at the moment, they're driving me nuts.
    "I don't want to live on this planet any more" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth

  40. #40
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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    I was eating a nectarine once and upon getting to the sweet, juicy, yummy center, I discovered I had been eating the apartmet complex of a dozen or so white worms, all wriggling about the core of the fruit, as if to say "STOP EATING MY HOME!"

    I have since cut every fruit in slices prior to consuming.

  41. #41

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    Default Re: Bugs in your dinner?

    I don't know about bugs, but I always noticed that when I ate dulse or other seaweed I'd occasionally bite down on a tiny piece of something crunchy. I finally realized these were teeny tiny little snail type shells. Hopefully the creature that used to inhabit the shell was gone, but I don't know for sure so I always inspect my seaweed now.

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