Who doesn’t love strawberries?
There’s truly nothing like eating a sweet, ripe strawberry.
It’s refreshing, delicious, and a perfect snack or dessert.
We can also find lots of them in the fresh produce section, making a healthy snack more accessible.
But do you wash your strawberries before eating them?
Some of us enjoy taking a taste test in the grocery or farmer’s market, so we’ll know if the strawberries we’re about to buy in bulk taste good.
Others might grab them already packaged and would think the store has already washed them.
However, this TikTok trend might give you second thoughts about that.
Are you having a good day today?
I’m sorry for ruining it by posting this video of a strawberry under a microscope. pic.twitter.com/xQKSG04OYK
— QENNY Go Go White Sox (@AKBrews) March 28, 2023
It’s been going around TikTok for quite a while now, and others have been curious if it’s true.
People have been soaking strawberries (and other fresh produce) in water with salt.
And what did they find out?
Bugs or insects in their strawberries!
Some of them “came out” of the strawberries under the premise that these bugs were inside, while others claimed they saw them crawling on the surface.
This has spread in various social media channels, and people can’t help but try it out for themselves.
However, there is no consensus on what these bugs really are.
Some said these were strawberry mites (or two-spotted spider mites), others said these were pharaoh ants, while others claimed these were spotted wing drosophila.
Whichever it was, people were alarmed upon seeing this come out of their strawberry soak.
Do you want to try it for yourself? There were many ways people did.
Simply fill a bowl with water, add salt, and soak your strawberries before rinsing them.
Others let it sit for five minutes, while most people soaked it for thirty.
Some TikTokers also preferred warm water over cold, and some added one part white vinegar to four parts water.
The result surprised most people, but experts said it was not so surprising at all.
Bugs are common in most of the fresh produce that we eat.
They are, after all, planted and harvested from a garden where pests like these typically co-exist.
This is true for strawberries and all the fresh fruits and vegetables we buy. It’s safe to say we may have ingested several mites in our entire lives already.
But are they harmful?
There is no clear evidence nor any proven study that ingesting these insects would cause harm to our bodies.
There have been no reports of people getting sick because they accidentally ate them from their food.
Besides, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration limits the number of bugs our food contains – even canned goods.
If all this information makes you paranoid about your food, there’s only one thing to do: wash them.
Don’t you usually wash your food before eating or preparing them? Because if you don’t, then that’s on you.
Therefore, the lesson here is to wash your fresh produce before putting it in your mouth, pot, or pan.
And it doesn’t matter if you got it packed already; you still must wash them.
Click the video below to see the nasty little critters in action.
Are you having a good day today?
I’m sorry for ruining it by posting this video of a strawberry under a microscope. pic.twitter.com/xQKSG04OYK
— QENNY Go Go White Sox (@AKBrews) March 28, 2023
