Posted on 07/24/2014 7:16:39 PM PDT by 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?
If you don’t have bugs in your teeth, there’s something wrong with your ride.
Bugs will show up in the pantry sooner or later. Invest in some quality storage containers so the bugs don’t spread to everything.
My ancestors invented cooking just for this reason. This also
is a good example of the difference between edible and
palatable. When it comes to weevils always eat the smallest one.
The lesser of two weevils. On the other hand I don’t
eat large redfish or red drum because of the parasitic
worms in the meat though some say its quite harmless and
safe to do so. And if you eat bologna or hot dogs.....
Springtime is mulberry season around here. We know that some of those berries have tiny bugs in them, but we eat them right off the tree anyway. Because those juicy black berries are still sweet, delicious, and very nutritious.
Farmers need Rat Terriers!
Come on, I’m not that picky about my food. I love mushrooms, raw or cooked. And they’re grown in cow turds.
“He’s into lateral thinking...”
I wish my wife was that kind to me.
Ya’ll must still be celebrating your honeymoon.
:-)
3 things:
1. Cool storage
2. Bay Leaves
3. If knowing the eggs are there is too much, Bay Leaves won’t make it more palatable.
http://www.thekitchn.com/tips-bay-leaves-in-the-pantry-69557
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/303286
Not a wives’ tale. It really works, particularly for long-term food storage (SHTF) of grains, oats, etc., especially those so-called vacuum sealed.
Just find an inexpensive source for Bay Leaves (bulk sources are a decent price/oz). We’ve always kept our pastas & grains in drawers near the floor or in a cool place and NEVER have had the problem described. Even before I discovered Bay Leaves.
Rich Pryor's brother: Hey Rich there's feet on my Almonds
Richard: Well you're the only one that ate a roach.
OK seriously. If you knew how foods {any food} is processed you'd loose your appetite. I used to work on refrigeration equipment for restaurants, slaughter houses & meat packing houses, and grocery stores. The 5 Star over priced restaurant is just as apt to have as many health code violations as the local fast food place. Last place I worked at was in a nursing home in maintenance. I kid you not they had a bean plant growing up through the floor.
It's not what you can see in foods that normally hurts you unless the food is obviously tainted such as a can that is puffed out etc. It's the microscopic bacteria and in some cases viruses pass on through handling that will likely make you sick especially in produce.
Pasta, flour, corn meal, cake mixes etc it's not that uncommon for a person to have bugs found in their purchase a few times in their lifetime. If it bothers you then toss it. If not the sanitary thing to do is rinse the pasta till free of bugs and cook it. Nothing in the pasta will survive cooking. Meat is a different matter. There are some things in meat you can't kill even by cooking if present called Pions I think.
“Bugs will show up in the pantry sooner or later. Invest in some quality storage containers so the bugs don’t spread to everything.”
I found that if you put a 1/4 cup of bleach in a plastic
cup on the floor and then pour some ammonia in it and leave
for about 2 or 3 hours, when you come back everything will
either be dead or vacated. Gets rid of mold and mildew odors
too. Just don’t breath till you get out side.
Ah, roaches. Before getting married I rented an upstairs room from a long time missionary to Africa. I noticed in the little kitchen I had that there were some bugs that I thought must be roaches so I mentioned it to her. One night I woke up with one crawling up my leg.
I was so freaked out about it that I went downstairs to call my boyfriend and when I turned on the light in her kitchen hundreds scattered.
I’ve moved into a couple of apartments that had them but I love the battle and always win. Always take garbage out at night, put all boxed or grain goods in the fridge, and never leave dirty dishes in the sink overnight. Love the big power spray bug killer. Wish I had had that back in the day.
In Missouri I used to have 5” slugs come up from the crawlspace under the water heater. Nice patterns. I just threw them back under the house.
It happens. Nothing can be perfect, and we need to stop being so spoiled we throw fits when something goes wrong.
Was it Weird Al that made “First-World Problems”?
I got some toilet paper last year that put out a ton of white powder all over me. I was actually scared there might be anthrax. I wrote the company and they likewise were apologetic and sent me coupons for free items.
The worst thing ever to happen to me with food was a large Hershey bar when I was a kid. I had gotten it from a drug store, and when I went to open it that night - maggots! My dad and I returned it to the store and they opened another couple bars - maggots! Contact to Hershey.
But bottom line, these are rarities. In my 45 years I have hardly ever experienced anything bad.
Crud happens, and we need to accept that.
“We know that some of those berries have tiny bugs in them, but we eat them right off the tree anyway.”
Those berries have parasites (tiny bugs) and those tiny
bugs have parasites (tape worms). Be careful.
“And they’re grown in cow turds.”
Never drink an open cup of coffee sitting in the first three
rows at a cattle auction. You wont know until the last sip.
Actually it release chlorine gas, which is bad for you. Depending on if you mixed it with too much bleach or too much ammonia you get nitrogen trichloride or hydrazine...both are somewhat explosive as well as poisonous.
Better to experiment on your local liberals.
You could go on a paleo diet ...
I wish I’d never touched pasta.
Once I purchased some cayenne pepper and there was a worm crawling in the pepper when I opened it, but I have not had a bad experience with pasts.
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