Pasta Bugs: Why Are There Insects In American Food?

Vanity ^ | 07/24/2013 | jespasinthru

[jespasinthru]

Has this ever happened to you? You go to a clean, modern American supermarket and buy some boxes of pasta. You store some of them in you cupboard. And when you cook it, little black bugs are floating in the water. They look like fleas, except that they have snouts. Very gross. And by putting boxes of them in your cupboard, you have now infested your kitchen with them. I was so mad that I e-mailed the company, a popular national brand, and gave them a piece of my mind. I even e-mailed them a close-up photo of the bug in question. I received an apologetic letter from the company. They informed me that these things are called grain weevils, and they are very prevalent in the commercial farms of Kansas, Nebraska, Idaho and Iowa. The company is reluctant to overuse pesticides, and they reject GMO crops because of public outcry. So some of these bugs make it into the processing plants and past quality control, and consumers find them in their boxes of pasta. I've been married for five months, and when I discussed it with my husband he was very pragmatic about it: "Just rinse the pasta before you cook it. If any bugs get past the rinsing, just cook 'em. The heat will kill any bacteria, and bugs do have a bit of protein in them. It's a sin to throw away good food." He's into lateral thinking, which is one of the reasons why I love him. A week later I got a fat envelope in the mail. The pasta company sent me coupons for twenty free boxes of the same buggy crap. Like I'd ever put their product in my kitchen again. I went to a huge Lutheran church in my town that gives out lots of free food to the poor and homeless, and explained the situation to them. To my surprise, the pastor and his administrators were familiar with the pasta bug problem. They were happy to accept those 20 free coupons that I got in the mail. Has this ever happened to you?

[tiki]

We always ate mulberries, never washed them, right out of the tree and one day I held one in my hand and watched the little worms crawl out. I did wash them after that.

[gunsmithkat]

I bought some brown rice at the local health food store a couple months ago. As soon as I got it home the plastic bat went it to a sealed zip lock bag. A few weeks later the inside of the zip lock bag was crawling with grain moths. I have traps around the kitchen and they did not show any infestation.

[Secret Agent Man]

never seen pasta bugs in any pasta i buy. i will look for them now, though.

[smoothsailing]

My grandfather used to say; “You eat a pound of dirt before you die”.

Don’t recall him mentioning the bug limit.

[Secret Agent Man]

your mom just liked to put a little bit of her in everything she made. :-)

[Fungi]

Nice touch......

[GILTN1stborn]

LOL, I would rather deal with these little critters than chemicals, modifications, and pesticides. Your husband is right. Sure better than what DC is getting these days. I saw on Drudge that they have bed bug problem! Now that is scary!

[DannyTN]

I prefer the sealed plastic wrapped pasta to the boxes for just that reason.

[RedHeeler]

Be grateful.

[GeronL]

Do you expect food to be grown or manufactured in an antiseptic clean room?

Did you grow up in a plastic bubble?

Everything has some bugs in it. Do you know that yogurt is actually a living bacteria?

Things are grown in the ground, do you expect there wouldn't be bugs of some type involved?

You do wash all your veggies and fruits before eating them, right? It's not just because of dust.

If you try to live a totally clean life, you could develop allergies. A little dirt is good for your immune system.

What does the FDA considered "defective"?

The first thing on the list is ground allspice that should not contain 30 or more bug parts per 10 grams or no more than 1 rodent hair in 10 grams.

Frozen Broccoli - Average of 60 or more aphids and/or thrips and/or mites per 100 grams

ever wonder how easy it is for a can of Sweet Corn to pass muster with the FDA? - Insect larvae (corn ear worms, corn borers) 2 or more 3mm or longer larvae, cast skins, larval or cast skin fragments of corn ear worms or corn borer and the aggregate length of such larvae, cast skins, larval or cast skin fragments exceeds 12 mm in 24 pounds (24 No. 303 cans or equivalent)

Wheat Flour - Average of 75 or more insect fragments per 50 grams or 1 rodent hair in 50 grams.

---

*source is FDA

Defect Levels Handbook The Food Defect Action Levels - Levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods that present no health hazards for humans

[RetiredTexasVet]

Quit your whining, the UN has dictated that you should eat more insects thereby lessening your need for animal protein, leaving more for the elite, and contributing less carbon for global warming .... you hater and wrecker!

[GeronL]

http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/SanitationTransportation/ucm056174.htm#CHPT1

[jocon307]

This has never happened to me.

But, once back in the bad old days of the 1970s in Dirty Old NYC I bought an electrical alarm clock.

Brought it home, plugged it in, the clock ran, all was well.

As soon as the alarm clock went off the next day, and I hit the snooze button, like a million roaches ran out of it.

It was like a freaking horror movie.

I have other roach horror stories, but I will save them for future threads.

Yes, I threw the clock away immediately.

[davius]

Put your pasta in a plastic container and place a couple of Bay leaves in with it. It works for flour, rice, and pretty much any dry good except sugar (which doesn’t need any protection).

[Mount Athos]

I got this once in pasta from china.

I don’t buy pasta from china anymore

[blackdog]

When I worked in food processing of grains / flour, we would run certain bulk totes through an "Entolator" which is a motor spinning a wheel at such high speeds that it smashes the insect larvae and eggs from centrifugal forces.

Very common to have eggs in the grains. That's nature.

[capt. norm]

Had an outbreak of them in Iowa...we lived about two blocks from a large grain elevator.

They can bore thru cardboard to get to boxed grain products like cereal. Ended up storing cereal, pasta, etc. boxes in large gallon-size plastic zip-top bags and that worked.

Got some old-timey fly-paper ribbons and they collected all the adults. Evidently they can communicate as the ones stuck on the fly-paper attract more in to get stuck. At first you get a few an then the number stuck on the paper explodes.

[IMR 4350]

I once bit down on what I thought was a chicken bone in a sandwich I had made out of some canned chicken.

Chicken bones aren’t gray and covered in hair, rats tail.

That was the second sandwich when I found it.

Up until that I thought the bologna sandwiches I’d been eating 3 times a day were bad.

[dead]

Before each of us shuffles off this mortal coil, we will have consumed significant amounts of dirt, bugs, and other nasties. It is inevitable, by the very nature of eating.

Pick out the bits you see and don't sweat what you miss.

[GeronL]

sugar doesn’t need protection?