Put Strawberries in Salt Water, See What Happens Next

Washing your food is definitely the way to make sure it’s bug-free right? Mmmmm, not really. Next time you’re biting into a strawberry, try to forget what else you could be munching on as well!

Soaking your strawberries in saltwater before eating them can help get rid of any pests left living on the fruit. You put them in the saltwater, returning a short time later.

What you find on your strawberries is something more like a scary movie than a delicious treat! Little maggots crawling all over your fresh delicacy! What’s going on here?

These gross little maggots aren’t really maggots at all. They’re none other than the larvae of a fruit fly! Tiny little wriggling fruit fly babies escaping from the salt bath! Larvae aren’t the only things that have been found in strawberries either. Caterpillars and spiders have been known to hide away in these sweet tasty spots, unaware we’re getting ready to eat them as well! There’s a way to test your food if you really want to.

To do this at home, all you need is salt water and some patience. Soak your fruit in the salty water for 30 minutes and wait and see if little insects are escaping your food. If none appear, that still doesn’t mean you’re safe. They might just be really good at hiding!

Fruit flies love to lay their eggs in ripe fruit, and we’ve been eating them for a very long time. Scientists don’t believe there’s any harm from eating bugs and there’s a good reason why. There are bugs in everything we eat!

Caterpillars have always been found in apples, and sometimes you won’t notice you have an infested apple until you find a caterpillar staring back at you! Fruit flies also don’t go just after strawberries either, they will lay their eggs in all sorts of fruit!

Peaches, grapes, and even cherries aren’t safe! Nothing’s new about salt testing, however; this practice has been around with farmers for years.

Farmers regularly check handfuls of their produce in salty water to make sure they aren’t infested. Does this mean that you might’ve been eating these little larvae for quite some time? Well yes! The good news is that these little creatures won’t spoil your fruit, and you wouldn’t have ever found them normally.

A little extra bug protein can’t be bad for our smoothies at all if you don’t mind the crunch sometimes! I wouldn’t recommend using salt water to clean your strawberries — the salt can take away that sweet taste you’re craving.

Freshwater should be used to help get rid of any pesticides and insect pieces left on the outside. This should be done the same way we wash our hands, for 20–30 seconds. This is a great way to preserve the taste of your fruit and remove any residue as well. Vinegar and water work well too!

Having tiny insects in my food rather than big spiders is something I would prefer any day! Look at these long legs and those eyes! A family in the UK bought a lovely bunch of bananas at their local shop in 2016 but didn’t realize that unexpected guests were coming home with them as well! These spiders decided to come out of their nest and explore their new home, much to the fright of the family!

The bananas came from Brazil, and the Brazilian wandering spider followed its name properly and came to the UK. Not surprisingly, the family had to vacate their home to get rid of the unwanted spiders and probably won’t buy bananas ever again!

The truth with all fruit and vegetables is that there are always going to be insects found in and on them. If little bugs crawling out of fruit make you feel uneasy, I have to tell you that you’ve been eating them voluntarily for quite some time!

For many years, red food coloring has been made from one source. A tiny beetle. This beetle lives mainly in South America and has been used to color anything from cakes and candy to even being in your favorite cup of coffee a few years ago!

If eating beetles bothers you, all you need to look for is E120 or natural red 4 on the package to know if you’re going to eat delicious bugs! Major companies have stopped using this form of food coloring, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop eating bugs.

That shine on your favorite candy also comes from the Indian female lac bug. The beetle leaves behind a substance that is scraped from the trees to be formed into dried shellac! In many countries, it’s a very common thing to eat, and a lot of scientists believe we should be consuming more bugs.

In Thailand, China, and Japan, it’s common to walk along the streets and find interesting crickets and silkworms available to eat! In Australia, the Aborigines eat the honey-pot ant and witchetty grubs that are full of nutrition, apparently. I think I’ll stick to bee honey for now, though.

If you love coffee and tea, you’re consuming more than your fair share of bug parts — namely, over 100,000 of them! There are more bugs in our pantries than in any of the food we bring home from the supermarket. These little insects will overtake your supplies of flour and pasta very quickly if not stored properly, but before you notice them, you will have eaten them!

Every packet of flour or spices contains bits of insects as well, which makes our cakes and food taste just that little bit nicer, doesn’t it? Ground pepper is used daily with cooking and more insects are found here than in any other spices! There can be over 400 pieces in 2 oz, so this must be the secret ingredient to a good meal! [2 oz (50 g)]

Having one cup of raisins adds to your daily intake of protein with fruit fly eggs and as many 10 whole critters dried as well! Getting hungry yet? We can consume up to 2 lb [2 lb (~1 kg)] of insects a year without even knowing it! That’s nearly the same as 20* golf balls eaten every single year. That’s a lot of trips to the golf course!

Even chocolate isn’t safe! Chocolate is filled with insects. It only officially becomes a problem if the chocolate has over 60 insect pieces per 3.5 oz, [3.5 oz (100 g)] which isn’t as much as you think!

Cockroaches and moths make up a tiny portion of our treats, and it could be the secret ingredient that makes chocolate so satisfying! Are those peanuts or legs? Mmm!

Anyone that has chocolate allergies can now be slightly relieved! According to testing, a lot of people aren’t allergic to cocoa, it’s the ground up cockroach that causes these allergies, and chocolate isn’t the only enjoyable treat affected. Cockroach pieces have been found in peanut butter and cheese as well! So maybe that wasn’t just crunchy peanut butter after all.

To help the problem, companies are making chocolate covered crickets, ants, and bees! Creating a new delicacy around the world. The taste is like crispy rice and slightly nutty. Chocolate mealworm cookies anyone? During the 19th century, the now-extinct Rocky Mountain locusts destroyed the farmlands of the USA. These swarms could weigh up to 27 million tons and contain over 12 trillion insects!

This would be the same amount of protein as 40 million cows, or just under half the number of cows in the US now. Jeez, that’s a lot of locust burgers!

Guinness World Records has these swarms as the biggest concentration of animals ever. Something that will be hard to beat, I feel sorry for the person that had to count all the locusts.

With nearly 2,000 varieties of insects available to eat, it’s not really a question of when you’re going to eat some, it’s how! They’re rich in protein, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals, so we should be eating more of them, in fact.

Scientists believe that bugs will become part of the new normal diet in a few years. It turns out eating insects could be way more beneficial for the planet than creating agricultural farms. These pests are actually becoming more popular around the world now, with many restaurants offering crispy crickets as appetizers! If we’re already munching on them daily, that shouldn’t be a hard thing to move into.

Cockroach tacos with a side of crunchy mealworms could be something our kids could be ordering at their favorite restaurants, and we would be the weird ones to them. “What do you mean you ate cows? That’s strange, Mom.”