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Some insects I found inside dried Turkish figs from Trader Joe’s
- SZJX 4y agoInteresting reply in the original post by Jason: > This reminds me of what I read somewhere about how, when vegetarian Indians started living in England in large numbers they would often have dietary deficiences. The story was that traditional processing left a lot of insects, and the much needed nutrients they contained, in their diets. Industrial processing of the same foods did not. > Source: “in the mid-1970s it was found that orthodox Hindus who had been quite healthy on a vegan diet in their native India began to suffer from a high incidence of metaloblastic anemia after living for some time in England consuming the same diet. The cause was traced to vitamin B-12 deficiency, which in India was prevented by insect contamination of grains.” (pp. 168-169, “An orchard invisible : a natural history of seeds” by Jonathan W. Silvertown.)
- aurizon 4y agofigs are pollinated by those wasps = kill wasps = no figs...
- senectus1 4y agonot all figs are pollinated that way, but yes point taken. we should not just arbitrarily kill off anything that offends our sensibilities.
- bb88 4y agoFDA has limits to how many maggots, say, can be in food. Orange Juice, Fruits, Etc. https://www.cbsnews.com/gooddaysacramento/news/bugs-rodent-hair-and-poop-how-much-is-legally-allowed-in-the-food-you-eat-every-day/ https://www.cbsnews.com/gooddaysacramento/news/bugs-rodent-h... Though I have to say it's pretty awesome(terrible?) that they mix SI units with english units. (milligrams per pound)
- Overtonwindow 4y agoThere's a fantastic book, called the secret life of groceries by Benjamin Lorr. In it, he mentions that at the FDA they call Trader Joe's "Recall Joe's" for their disturbingly high number of recalls
- bb88 4y agoLast year, Consumer Reports did a study on spices contaminated with chemicals (cadmium, etc). And Trader Joe's wasn't immune from it. Certain third world countries would grow them in contaminated areas and then sell them back to the west. BTW, I appreciate your username. There's an episode of The Good Fight that talks about it.
- mastermedo 4y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window Thanks for pointing it out. TIL
- Overtonwindow 4y agoI read it in a book and thought it explained a lot of what our corporate, and media driven society has become. There are agendas and you can almost track their movement, and how the window of what is socially acceptable has moved. I think everyone should know and study the overton window concept.
- voytec 4y ago> at the FDA they call Trader Joe's "Recall Joe's" for their disturbingly high number of recalls Doesn't seem to be that many recalls in comparison to other US chains. FDA's search returns 11 recalls[1] for the last 3 years. [1] https://www.fda.gov/search?s=trader%20joe&items_per_page=100&sort_bef_combine=rel_DESC&f%5B2%5D=current%3A%28min%3A1580601600%2Cmax%3A1675296000%29 https://www.fda.gov/search?s=trader%20joe&items_per_page=100...
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- bdowling 4y agoDecent YouTube video on the wasps that pollinate the figs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRBiY65N2gk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRBiY65N2gk
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- bragr 4y agoThis reminds me that figs are extremely controversial in the vegan community for this exact reason. To me it seems a little silly given the inevitable consumption of insects in food, but to each their own I guess.
- spelunker 4y agoWhy figs specifically? Are other fruits less likely to come packed with unintended protein?
- Jensson 4y agoWasps put their eggs in figs so it is a closer collaboration than most pollinators.
- CydeWeys 4y agoYes. Figs are basically the most likely, as you see here. The fruit can't even be produced without the help of a fig wasp, and they often end up dead inside it. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/fresh-figs-and-bugs-66202233/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/fresh-figs-and-b...
- enchiridion 4y agoThat’s not really true. You only need the wasps to pollinate. But the tree will fruit without being pollinated.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- arcticbull 4y agoDepends on the variety. Most of the US ones don’t even need the wasps but the Calimyrna does.
- culi 4y agoStore bought varieties of the common fig are likely a self-pollinating variety but the wild variety of the common fig, as well as most of the rest of the 800+ species of figs, are not self-pollinating
- IG_Semmelweiss 4y agoId love to know which other organic fruits or veggies are prone to having "free riders" mixed in with the produce
- boltzmann-brain 4y agograpes often have whole web orbs inside them with a spider inside the orb.
- pprotas 4y agoYou mean the spider is chilling inside of the grape? Why would the spider do that, wouldn’t that make catching bugs harder?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- boltzmann-brain 4y agothere's a web inside the bunch, in the space between the grapes. not in the grape itself.
- Foobar8568 4y agoRaspberry would often have insects (including what I guess are stinky bug larvae), salads, persimmons, grapes, abricots, plums, chestnuts to name a few fruits that often carry either worms in the fruit or over.
- HideousKojima 4y agoI once found a caterpillar in a (non-organic) ear of corn from Walmart
- fakedang 4y agoNot exactly free riders. As other comments have mentioned, the figs pollinate via the wasps. You are meant to eat ze bugs, and be happy.
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- chrisshroba 4y agoExcuse my naive question, but is this something I should worry about at all in buying figs? I don’t mind the idea of eating insects but I’m trying to understand how noticeable this would be from a textural/visual/taste perspective.
- irrational 4y agoAs the author said, the insects probably aren’t a concern, but the fungus on the other hand… maybe?
- andrewinardeer 4y agoAnd we all know what happens when you ingest flour that has been contaminated with cordyceps.
- jb1991 4y agoReally? How concerned should I be, I just ate some cordyceps yesterday, what problem would that cause?
- pprotas 4y agoThere is a new documentary about this on hbo
- detaro 4y agoIt's a joke about the plot of The Last of Us, which pins the zombie outbreak on a fictional cordyceps variant that zombifies people (inspired by ones infecting ants or spiders).
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- jb1991 4y agoI know, I was also joking, and I mistakenly assumed that would be obvious because who would write, "oh no I just ate some cordyceps!!" but then I looked it up, and I guess you can in fact eat those, and people do, so the joke is on me.
- zander312 4y agoOh holy shit I eat a lot of that same Trader Joe’s fig brand. I am horrified…
- malermeister 4y agoYou'll find the same in pretty much all figs, no matter the brand. It's a thing.
- mshake2 4y agoYou only wish you knew after you already know :)
- IncRnd 4y agoMany figs will have wasps, natural figs that is. If you don't see wasps, you likely aren't looking at a real-world fig that has been polinated.
- npteljes 4y agoIt's going to be okay, the human system can cope with a lot (both physically and mentally). This amount of unexpected stuff in the food is considered normal, in fact, even encouraged. The immune system in particular suffers when people are placed in an overly sterile environment.
- danans 4y agoWhen I was young my grandma told me an interesting rule of thumb from her childhood in the old country: If there are no bugs in the grain after it has been stored for a while, don't eat it. The rationale was that if bugs didn't want to eat it (they didn't have tightly sealed packaging at that time), it was probably chemically contaminated.
- happytiger 4y agoThat is one fantastic rule of thumb and a great perspective on the way we were that I’ve never heard before.
- a_bonobo 4y agoThere's a story from the introduction of the potato into Germany. People would not eat the 'new' potatoes as dogs would not eat them. >The things have neither smell nor taste, not even the dogs will eat them, so what use are they to us? https://www.berlinexperiences.com/did-frederick-the-great-introduce-the-potato-to-germany-mythbusting-berlin/ https://www.berlinexperiences.com/did-frederick-the-great-in...
- beebmam 4y agoSeems to me like a pretty unscientific way to conclude whether a food is edible (or good for you). But it makes sense of course, if you didn't have access to modern science due to poverty or era.
- ehnto 4y agoEven modern grain infrastructure relies on delcarations of chemical usage and not itemized testing. Real time testing equipment is prohibitively expensive and lab testing takes too long to do it before mixing a load of grain into a silo. On site tests are done but for indicators of moisture spoilage, protein deterioration and disease, but not chemical contaminants.
- perryizgr8 4y ago
- noobermin 4y agoSo, I have a touchy stomach as most Americans, but I am also a pacific islander and have gutted fish many times while in Palau. I once dated someone who found eating shrimp with a head difficult as it "had eyes looking back at me." It definitely is good we have an FDA (and the equivalent in many countries) that keep food clean, but people need to remember and realize the food they eat was alive, interacted with other living things, and like figs, even grew because of them. I'm not sure if there is a remedy (or really, if it's such a bad reaction many including myself have that it requires any remedy), I guess it's just good to be aware.
- mattigames 4y agoPretty sure that if it convenience stores started hanging the head of the animal you are buying body parts of just over those (e.g. by law) the amount of vegetarians would increase 10 times or more, some of those people who would likely convert know this, for them anything that helps them avoid thinking about meat as recently living beings is a feature not a bug.
- riffraff 4y agoI think it's mostly habit, I remember seeing lamb's heads at the butcher when I was a kid[0] and found it a bit unsettling but that did not prevent me from enjoying lamb chops. The more we become detached from thinking of meat as animals the harder the impact of realizing it again could be, but if it became normalized people would just stop being shocked quickly. [0] human child not goat
- throwaway2202 4y agoBeef is cow, lamb is sheep, etc. are there languages that have the same word for the food and the mammal?
- kenneth 4y agoChinese is simple like that: beef is "cow meat," pork is "pig meat," etc.
- irrational 4y agoNow I want to slice up some fig newtons to see what might be found.
- Heston 4y agoI've purchased many different brands of dried figs and 90% are coming from Turkey, which all have bugs, bug poo or mold in them. The fresh figs I purchased were from either the US or Brazil and didn't have this problem but were extremely expensive.
- bayindirh 4y agoI don't know which grade is imported by which brand, but we eat a lot of dried figs here (in Turkey), and I know no one felt sick after eating, even considerable amount of these things. Fresh figs are so expensive because they're extremely delicate and have extremely short shelf life if produced naturally. Human body is much more resilient than it looks and our food contains much more than meets the eye. Somebody noted FDA's limits about bugs, so I'll not reiterate it here.
- anon84873628 4y agoI've had a absolutely phenomenal dry figs from Turkey... Truly one of nature's treasures :-)
- culi 4y agoThe wasps are how figs pollinate. They're meant to die there. So if you're eating figs that lack a dead wasp it's likely because it's had a hormone applied to it to induce fruiting despite not being pollinated
- aendruk 4y agoAs a curious kid I was given an invaluable piece advice from my dad: “Don’t look at your food.”
- piggybox 4y agotruly organic
- Animats 4y agoI got figs from Trader Joe's with black mold in them.
- fIREpOK 4y agowasps are normal, not mold
- zxcvbn4038 4y agoLet’s hope my wife never sees this article or she might stop eating altogether. I know there is all sorts of insect stuff in food but as long as it’s measured in parts per million then ok just don’t think about it. There is a lot about food that it helps to not think about. ;) Believe it or not but before Gordon Ramsey was making a name for himself as a professional a-hole he had a really great show in the UK called F-Word which tried to educate people about where their food came from, and it would often follow various food animals from birth to slaughter to being prepared for a meal. It was very informative and one of the best things he has ever done, it’s a real shame it doesn’t translate well to US audiences. (And probably most US audiences would be horrified how food animals are raised over here - no green pastures nor doting farmers tending their herds and flocks)
- culi 4y agoFigs are pollinated by fig wasps that die in the fruit. So I think figs are a pretty unique case and not indicative of something you have to worry about in most other fruit
- Double_a_92 4y agoTo be fair most fruit has pests in them unless they aren't treated with pesticides. E.g. if you have a cherry tree the cherries on it will end up full of worms if you let them ripen on the tree.
- megablast 4y agoA few figs are. Most are not.
- culi 4y agoThere are 855 species of figs and almost every single one of them has a corresponding species of fig wasp that pollinates only that fig "Most are not" only applies to figs you buy at the grocery store that are a variety of the Ficus carica species. This variety is sometimes able to fruit without pollination (sometimes requiring application of a fruiting hormone). But the vast majority of figs are not the common fig and not this specific variety of the common fig
- airtonix 4y ago[dead]
- devindotcom 4y agoThis is nasty but these wasps and the fig trees that are their home are the subject of one of the best nature documentaries I've ever seen, The Queen of Trees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy86ak2fQJM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy86ak2fQJM If you can locate a good HD copy it's worth waiting and watching that. Ian Holm narrates the stories of a bunch of different animals, from fig wasps to other bugs and larger creatures like bats, monkeys and even humans that rely on the tree. It has some of the most horrifying but also incredible imagery I've seen in a nature show and some real groaner lines from Holm to boot. My friends and I watch it every year or two and it never fails to amaze me.
- ugh123 4y agoThe ending was superb. "She will be alone in the garden, for the gate is closing. Others arrive too late."
- tpowell 4y agoLooks like Apple has it for $12.99: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-queen-of-trees/umc.cmc.2i73snzddt6po4b2d26hw4xht https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-queen-of-trees/umc.cmc.2i7...
- culi 4y agoed2k link: https://docuwiki.net/index.php?title=The_queen_of_trees https://docuwiki.net/index.php?title=The_queen_of_trees
- undersuit 4y agoI've only found one wasp in my figs. I wonder how many eggs were in the fig when I ate it.
- pilsetnieks 4y agoThe fig wasp is tiny, like a millimeter. Actually the absolute majority of all wasps are - we think of a sizeable hornet when we hear "wasp" but those are the mythical giants of that world. Unless you go really looking for it, you wouldn't even see the fig wasp. If there was a visible wasp it's likely something that was simply feeding on it.
- kristianp 4y agoSeems to have been hugged out of image bandwidth, cache at https://archive.is/5X83X https://archive.is/5X83X
- esalman 4y agoFrom time to time I buy dried figs, apricots, plums etc from Costco. Next time I'll be sure to check haha
- culi 4y agoIf you do find a wasp, then it's a good sign you're getting quality fruit. Figs are dependent on fig wasps to pollinate so if your fig doesn't have one it was either sprayed with a specific hormone to induce fruiting or is of a variety specifically bred to be self-fertile
- vinay427 4y ago> variety specifically bred to be self-fertile What does this have to do with some sense of quality? There are a myriad of fruits and vegetables that are bred for things that we consume.
- spiznnx 4y agoI know they are safe to eat, but now I never want to eat a fig again! I was never that fond of them in the first place...
- esalman 4y agoOh hey it is Collin Purrington, whose conference poster templates I regularly used at conferences during PhD- https://colinpurrington.com/tips/poster-design/ https://colinpurrington.com/tips/poster-design/
- Birkeholm 4y agoDid that site just crumble under the weight of new visitors? It’s completely broken on my end
- ajot 4y agoOh, I've tried the portrait-orientation template, it left everyone around confused. I always reccomend his lab notebook post [0], although I think he has edited it through the years. The testing of different writing tools against different solvents is just great. [0] https://colinpurrington.com/tips/lab-notebooks/ https://colinpurrington.com/tips/lab-notebooks/
- jansenmac 4y agoOn Dutch television they showed that sun-dried tomatoes often contain insect parts. When drying in the sun (in Turkey) they attract insects and washing does not remove everything. No reason to worry was the message.
- pelasaco 4y agoAn old saying: worse than finding a bug inside a fruit while eating it, is to find only the half of the bug.
- otikik 4y agoExtra protein
- beebeepka 4y agoThat means these figs are edible.
- johnwheeler 4y agoNever again
- taylorius 4y agoSomewhere, in a mountain fortress, Klaus Schwab is rubbing his hands, chuckling, and whispering "excellent - you vill eat ze bugs and be happy, yes?"
- orenak 4y agoare you sure its not an greek fig?
- s5ma6n 4y agoOn a side note, try to keep eating figs in dried form at a moderate amount or avoid altogether if the source is "not reputable". Dried figs are very susceptible to Aflatoxin B1(1) which is a very potent carcinogen from fungi. US food safety regulations allow 2-10 times more aflatoxin B1 in food compared to EU. During my work, I had a chance to visit dried fig producers and saw even a couple of contaminated figs spreading to the rest of the stock like wildfire. What you can do is to check your dried figs under UV light, and it should not shine. Here's an example image(2) I found. Source: I have worked in the company as a machine vision engineer to develop aflatoxin detection systems with UV light. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aflatoxin_B1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aflatoxin_B1 2: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/21073?page=11 https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/21073?page...
- noduerme 4y agoHow does this look on a dried fig? I remember eating plenty when I was a child that had some whitishness on the outside.
- s5ma6n 4y agoThey are not noticeable under visible light, so contaminated figs look totally normal except under UV and/or IR light. You can check out the link (2) above or this one: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Sample-photographs-taken-for-detection-of-aflatoxin-formation-on-dried-figs_fig3_293172052 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Sample-photographs-taken...
- ge96 4y agowell that's a cool application of machine vision, TIL
- unglaublich 4y ago[flagged]
- virgildotcodes 4y ago
- danbmil99 4y agoLet's not forget Mimolette... we were staying in Paris, hungry; I hit up a local bodega (or whatever all-night store is in French) and bought a package of what looked to me like nice aged Cheddar. Back in the hotel, we are pigging out on this delicious french cheese when my son (14 yrs old, knows everything) mentions that the cheese we are enjoying almost surely was infested with live mites. Hilarity ensued
- srge 4y agoOld mimolette it’s possible yes. But Artisou cheese from Auvergne (center of France), most definitely : https://www.bienmanger.com/2F37902_Margeride_Artisou_Farmhouse_Cheese_With_Raw_Milk.html https://www.bienmanger.com/2F37902_Margeride_Artisou_Farmhou...
- afandian 4y agoBodegas are big in France. Big bagpipes. https://www.cornemusesoccitanes.com/bodega/ https://www.cornemusesoccitanes.com/bodega/
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- noduerme 4y agoWould someone with a severe allergy to wasp venom go into anaphylactic shock from eating this? I know a guy who works in a vineyard and has to take some pretty nasty wasp venom shots every couple months in case he gets stung.
- klipt 4y agoVenom != poison. Typically venom only acts by being injected straight into you, eating it may have little or no effect.
- jupiterisbig 4y agoI'm Turkish and fresh figs are readily available in season in Turkey. My dad has thought me to always turn a fresh fig inside out and use my eyeballs to check for bugs before I devour one. It's more common than you think.
- mcv 4y agoI don't mean to be squeamish about this, but I'm glad I'm not a fig eater. I know fig wasps are totally normal, but I assumed they'd be completely dissolved or at least unrecognisable. Finding not only recognisable wasps but also many other insects is a bit of a shock to me. But the article says it's not uncommon to find insects in stored food. So what other insects have I been eating? My fruit consumption is mostly limited to bananas, apples, grapes, and the occasional strawberry or plum. I do know that fruit flies like a banana, and we've had enough drosophila infestations that I'm under no illusions about my accidental consumption of them.
- vivegi 4y agoIf you are in the US, here is a Food and Drug Administration Food Defect Levels Handbook that gives the standard for contamination. From the handbook: > Chocolate and Chocolate Liquor > Insect filth > (AOAC 965.38) > Average is 60 or more insect fragments per 100 grams when 6 100-gram subsamples are examined > OR > Any 1 subsample contains 90 or more insect fragments > Macaroni and Noodle Products > Insect filth > (AOAC 969.41) > Average of 225 insect fragments or more per 225 grams in 6 or more subsamples Source: https://www.fda.gov/food/ingredients-additives-gras-packaging-guidance-documents-regulatory-information/food-defect-levels-handbook https://www.fda.gov/food/ingredients-additives-gras-packagin...
- LargoLasskhyfv 4y agoTsk. This is in line with the new regulations allowing for insects(or products thereof, like powder) in your food. Enjoy your proteines! :->
- maksimur 4y agoI wonder how Muslims and Turks reconcile insects being haram and dried figs containing them. Anyone care to explain?
- enilakla 4y agoNot a Muslim but eating insects isn’t considered haram and some are halal even.
- maksimur 4y agoIt seems like insects are halal only if they have a "clean" diet. So things like cockroaches are haram but locusts and fig-inhabiting insects are halal because they feast on what humans feast.
- yread 4y agoalfatoxin is a also a (much bigger) issue for peanut butter https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9489356/#:~:text=One%20hundred%20percent%20(100%25),to%20382.9%20%CE%BCg%2Fkg https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9489356/#:~:tex...).
- DueDilligence 4y ago.. a neighbours 6 yr old daughter had to be rushed to the ER and was sourced back to the figs she ate minutes before. She had to be intubated, that's how serious her esophageal constriction and anaphylactic shock was. While rare, those with growing/compromised immune systems should be aware, esp. Organic since no chemicals are used.
- h2odragon 4y agoLovely pics of the fungi. Ever had your breads start growing blue stuff, while sitting out on the counter? Ever stop to think that those things were growing there for a couple days, before they got big enough to see?
- npteljes 4y agoThe similar thought that stuck with me was regarding the human immune system. The thought that there's a myriad of things constantly happening in the human body, a continuous contest of different lifeforms, and that the immune system is the things that tries to keep on top of it all. Sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing. It really makes me think just how complex, interconnected, ever-changing everything is.
- blamazon 4y agoWhen I was working in a bacteria research lab I often thought about how cool/terrible it would be to have magic glasses to actually see the invisible, biologically thriving worlds that are present on basically every surface of this planet, in the style of the movie 'they live'. [1] It would be either terrifyingly fascinating or fascinatingly terrifying. This invisible world is even on all of the surfaces in and around our bodies, right now! We are all each host to a personalized ecosystem of microbial organisms. Something like 1-3 percent of 'your' body mass actually belongs to other organisms that we can't see. P.S. all reading this pls stay up to date on the tetanus vaccine! It's not just in rusty nails, it's pretty much everywhere. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live
- h2odragon 4y agoThere are infinite parallel universes. We co-exist with many of them, able to affect them only in the grossest, most indirect ways. Often we can only observe them with special tools and by inference and detection of signals subject to much other noise. I can rant about the interconnection of our microbiomes to the larger macro-biome (made up of the microbiomes of everything else around you) and how that makes things like living in the woods with hounds a better lifestyle than city life... but thats close to preaching :)
- zoklet-enjoyer 4y agoDisgusting. I stopped eating figs years ago
- mensetmanusman 4y ago“inadvertent consumption of arthropods isn’t going to harm you”
- RomanPushkin 4y agoJust ate one these 5 mins ago...
- sharno 4y agooh oh, I love these figs and I eat them a lot!
- botverse 4y agoOne thing people don’t always know is that all figs have _at least_ one dead wasp inside. That’s how they get pollinated.