I LOVE strawberries. And when I say I LOVE them, it’s honestly an understatement. I probably buy like four of the mid-sized cartons of them a week, and eat them all by myself.
There is something about strawberries that screams Summer, and I am here for it. That’s why when I saw a post about strawberries and strawberry cleaning methods, I couldn’t pass it by. The title of the post was “People are finding bugs in their strawberries, do you see any?” This caption was attached to a TikTok. In the video, the narrator says “I’ve been seeing these videos where if you put strawberries in saltwater, bugs come out.”
@zenosjake People are finding bugs in their strawberries, do you see any? #strawberrieswithbugs
And when the man tries the ‘salt-water’ strawberry challenge, he only saw one little fruit fly. While others claim to have massive amounts of worms and other creepy crawlies. My mind had almost been eased until Taste of Home posted its results.
According to the article, they placed strawberries in saltwater from three different farms. Then, they placed them in a bowl of plain water and a bowl of saltwater. In the bowl of plain water, they did see a tiny spider.
But, what they noticed in the saltwater will make your skin crawl. They found dead fruit flies, and one bug even began crawling out instantly. Out of the three brands, two contained bugs.
Something worth mentioning is that they noticed that bugs tended to hide around the leafy part, so if you have some strawberries, cut that part off. Additionally, just wash your berries. Soak them in a bit of baking soda and water before using them, and rinse them a couple of times. Not just because of bugs, but also because of pesticides that are sprayed on the fruit during the farming process.
If your mind still isn’t at ease, Sriyanki Lahiri (a strawberry entomologist from the University of Florida) says that eating the bugs isn’t dangerous. It might be kind of gross, but they won’t hurt you.