Are There Really Few Bugs in Your Strawberries?
The internet is horrified by a video on TikTok (and its accompanying Buzzfeed article ) showing what little worm-like beetles look like as they crawl out of fresh strawberries dipped in salt water. Is it for real? Did we unknowingly enjoy the maggots in our three-berry parfait? Should we never eat fruit again ? I spoke to some experts to find out.
Here’s the short answer: it’s a real thing that can happen, but it’s not that common. And neither food safety experts nor insect experts advise washing fruits in salt water.
What’s really going on in this video?
Christa Torres, who filmed the video, writes: “I filled a bowl with room temperature water, put in a shitty ton of sea salt (for example, five large spoons), put strawberries in there and waited about 30 minutes.” She then notices small white worms crawling out of the strawberries and concludes that they are the larvae of the spotted fruit fly Drosophila suzukii .
It is not clear from the video if she correctly identified the species, but more on that in a minute.
As entomologist Hannah Berrak told me , soaking in salt water is a technique that growers and wholesalers use to test fly larvae in berries. She helps berry farmers control pests at North Carolina State University. The berries are sold from producers to wholesalers (who pack them in these clamshell boxes) and from there they are resold to supermarkets. “If [the wholesalers] find larvae in the fruit coming from a producer, they will ship all of that fruit from that producer directly back,” says Burrak.
Since they only test a sample of the fruit in each shipment, there is no guarantee that the rest of the berries are free of larvae, but the general idea here is to minimize the likelihood that any beetle-infested berries will end up in the supply chain.
Are there such bugs in all strawberries?
No. But some strawberries must have bugs.
You know fruit flies, right? Those little tiny guys that pop up around overripe fruits you’ve left on the counter for too long? It is often Drosophila melanogaster or Drosophila simulans , if not one of their relatives, Berrac says. The adults you’ve seen and discarded a million times breed by laying their almost microscopic eggs in the soft parts of the fruit. The eggs hatch into tiny maggots known as maggots, which look exactly like the “worms” in TikTok videos. Over time, the larvae grow and turn into flies, and the life cycle repeats.
You will usually find these guys in fruits that are damaged or overripe, but there is a species called Drosophila suzukii that uses a scalloped ovipositor (uh, thorn) to inject its eggs into fresh berries while the fruit is still growing on the fruit. plant.
As the Buzzfeed article says, “The females shoot eggs inside the fruits that are just beginning to ripen, especially blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. MEANING THESE ERRORS ARE PROBABLY POSSIBLE IN ALL BERRIES! “
But Burrak tells me that it is impossible to know if the larvae in the video are D. suzukii , since all fruit fly larvae are alike. And since manufacturers and wholesalers are doing everything possible to D. suzukii not enter the food, this is unlikely: just as well could have been the larvae of the fruit fly that buzzed around the grocery store or kitchen Krista Torres.
Would it be harmful to accidentally eat these bugs?
Nope. The thought that they are hiding in your berries may sound unappetizing, but they will not harm you. “They can be eaten, but they are pretty nasty,” says Ben Chapman , a food safety specialist at North Carolina State University.
“Natural” protein, ”Food Safety Specialist Courtney Christ tweeted when I asked about it.
“If you eat berries, I guess you probably have eaten them at one time,” says entomologist Joe Bullenger .
Sorry, bugs in food are nasty
Valid moment. But since you’re talking about it, this is nothing new. Did you know that vegetables are grown outdoors, in the mud, and that there are a lot of insects? Bullenger casually mentioned that he recently picked a bug out of his salad (that is, I’m not kidding, its real name). Bedbugs inject saliva into the leaves, and then suck out the resulting liquid mass. You’ve probably eaten a lot of insect spit.
Likewise, Chapman noted that worms in fresh fish are so common that sushi restaurants must freeze raw fish before serving to kill any worms. This means that the worms are still there, they are simply dead.
I could go on, but I won’t. Suffice it to say that you’ve probably eaten a lot that you don’t want to think about. Or, as Ballenger put it, “If you look at this too closely, almost everything is going to be terrible.”
So what should I actually do with strawberries?
Everyone I spoke to said the same thing: no need to soak them in salt water or do something special. A regular rinse will do.
Berrac notes that you should keep the berries in the refrigerator. This extends their lifespan and protects against fruit flies scurrying around your counter. Bonus: After three days of chilling, any fruit fly eggs or larvae in your berries are likely to die.
All the classic tips for storing strawberries still apply, and the second important point is not to wash the berries until you are ready to eat them. Washing can slightly damage the berries, creating the opportunity for mold and microbes to penetrate under the skin. So just take a handful of the berries you are going to eat, wash them , and leave the rest in the refrigerator until next time.