We’ve heard a lot of these kinds of stories on the news in the last little while but now it’s happening to people we know. Sue found this bug in her Smucker’s jam. Click on the picture and you can even see all it’s legs! Our neighbor found a worm in her ravioli. Eeewwww…
Here’s a woman who found a bug in her canned asparagus. Then we have this story of a woman who finds a gecko in a can of mixed nuts. Then we have the mouse baked into a loaf of bread that a man found in London while making his kids lunch.
Other than the mouse, I wouldn’t freak out too much. I’ve found worms in old flour and also in canned corn. I just threw it away. Not that big of a deal but this seems to be happening more often. Or, are we just hearing about it more?
Would this freak you out? Would you just pick out the offending critter or would you throw the whole thing out? What would you do?
Us Girls..Our Views 
I am pretty sure I would not eat something that has had a non-microscopic organism running around in it for any length of time. That’s a little too much for me. I haven’t had anything like this happen to me, thank goodness. I hope to keep it that way. (By the way, I am EATING, so thanks for this! Ugh!)
I am not sure, but I would suspect that these things are being reported more widely nowadays rather than happening more often. It’s a trend with everything – sensationalize it – must be a lot of money in it. This is one of my pet peeves, because people always use the sensational but extremely rare examples for why you shouldn’t do ABC. Like letting your kid go to the bathroom alone in a generally safe restaurant. Or letting her play outside in the yard while you’re in the house. Or God forbid, letting her wear a coat while she’s in her car booster seat. “Don’t you care anything about your child?” Just yesterday we went to Panera and I told the kids to wait for me on the sidewalk while I searched the backseat for a piece of candy that had been dropped. Miss E walked around the corner of the building – still on the sidewalk, not causing any trouble. Two people stood by their cars and waited for the poor forlorn kid’s mother to show and then made comments about it. I could just hear their thoughts – “what if someone snatched that child?!” But I guarantee such a thing has never, ever happened for miles around. Yeah, it happened about 3 times countrywide over the past couple of decades. What is the likelihood that one of the handful of weirdos who would snatch a preschooler would happen by that particular Panera at that particular time? Gimme a break. And now you’re starting to see crazy rules like: (a) no child under 13 is allowed to be alone in a car for any period of time; (b) no adults (unaccompanied by kids) are allowed to relax in the kids’ area of the library; (c) no unaccompanied adults are allowed in the park! Since when is being around adults bad for kids? It’s amazing any kids manage to grow up (into actual competent adults) these days.
The kid thing happens to be my pet peeve, but the same “sensationalism” gripe applies to so many other things. They pitch it like it’s a public service announcement, but this really isn’t good for the community.
I refuse to watch TV news, partly because I don’t want them deciding how much time I should spend hearing / thinking about whatever they have decided to sensationalize today. I use a huge filter on the internet too, of course.
YIKES! Poor Sue but at least you found it before it was ingested! I think things like this have been going on for a very long time. How could it not really?
I don’t think I could just pick the offending critter out of anything that’s going to be going into my mouth or the mouth of anyone else for that matter so I would have to throw the whole thing out.
What happened to your blog Gary?
How are you .
My blog is still there LVISS! I’m good, thanks! How are you?
After I would get done gagging or puking, I would throw the whole thing away! That’s so disgusting!! I can say that I have never found anything in my food. (knock on wood) My sister, Mel, just recently found something in her can of raviolis. Why does this keep happening? Just laziness or what? So gross!
This seems to happen in every country.
Well, I called the Smucker’s comment hotline when I found! I got some nice lady named Janice who apologized profusely and took the info from the jar to send to the quality control department. Then she asked me if I wanted some coupons to be used on any Smucker’s product. I said sure, why not?!
I know that there is an acceptable level of bug parts allowed in food, but a whole bug?? When I saw it all I could think of was the Jurassic Park movie with the mosquito in the amber!!! Because I found it in a jar of apricot preserves, I’m not all too wigged out. It just shows that they use real fruit from a real tree to make the stuff. And the fact that it was whole made me feel better too b/c his little bug germs remained contained in his bug body and not chopped up and spread throughout the jar. Now, had I found a worm in my ravioli I would not be ok with it!!!
oops, first sentence should say “when I found it”
Thank god I’ve never ran into anything like that. “well that I know of”
Boy that didn’t take long to get up. lol
I think it’s better to have a whole bug that you can easily see than lots of little pieces that are consumed and you never know. You should write Smuckers a Thank You card for not hiding their bugs!! 🙂
Well the company manufacturing these products must be careful ! If such happenings continue then the customers will be simply pissed of and won’t trust it’s products next time. This will earn the company bad name besides the fact of having short future in the market.If anything like that happens to me then I will throw the whole thing away !
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Ok, I’ve got a pretty strong stomach. I’ve been known to extend the ‘5-second rule’ to include “brush off the dirt, it ain’t gonna hurtcha” when we’re outside at a picnic. I flick ants off of food, and just brush flies away. Not that I’m gross or anything, I just eat a lot of things outside, and don’t have a real big problem with nature.
But I draw the line at crawly things in my canned food. Somehow it’s more disgusting when it’s dead and preserved, than when it just lands for a second and moves on.
I’d likely throw the stuff away, and then make a stink with the company.
I have to agree with mssc in regards to it being whole. Thankfully Sue’s was but the gecko, beetle and mouse had “missing” parts. Then I’d throw it out and would maybe enforce a puke fest.
I also agree with Laura about things just landing on my food outside. I’m pretty easy with just brushing it away and saying shooo but I’d still eat that. Somethin’ dead in canned food would probably get tossed UNLESS it was whole like Sue’s. But I wouldn’t tell anyone. I’d just spoon it out and still use it. It is “preserved” after all. I’m just sayin’ possibly. It would really depend what it was and what I needed it for and if I had more in the cupboard.
You wouldnt tell anyone..um..note to self,never eat at Joy’s!LOL!
LOL!!! You do know how many bugs we eat and don’t know about don’t you Karen????
yea yea,I know your right but Id rather just live in denial.Me and bugs dont mix,ick!
Funny I was just making the same note to self. Just come over for coffee or tea. :+)
My problem with it being whole is that it was alive, moving around in there, probably leaving a trail of pee, spit, puke, and crap – I know that’s gross but this is a gross topic. If I saw it fly or fall in there and I knew it hadn’t had much time to leave a residue, fine and dandy. Maybe it’s all psychological, but I’ll live with that. Blech.
Ssshh, I totally used the preserves! I did not have time to run to the store for more and since it was whole tells me it didn’t have time to do anything other than die when it landed in the stuff!
OK SKL,I just threw up in my mouth a little!!!!Gross and grosser!!LOL!
That is SO very disgusting!!!Whole bug or parts I would throw the whole thing away.It would probably take me some time to even buy that brand again.GAG GAG!!!EW!
Ditto to Karen! I wouldn’t be able to eat that product for some time, just knowing what I found in it.
Okay then. Let me ask this. How often do you look through things really carefully? I mean, I’d notice a bug in say, a can of corn or beans. It would stand out. But the gecko was in a can of nuts and dried fruit. How many people look at ever single piece they eat? How many just put handfuls in their mouths without looking? How many people do what I just did and opened a can of mushrooms and just tossed them in the tuna casserole? I never used to pay such close attention. You can bet I looked at every single mushroom today though!!!
I usually wipe off the rodent and cockroach urine from the top of my soda cans.
After reading this post you can be assured I will not be just tossing things into a bowl without looking or heavens into my mouth. Ugg… I don’t know why but as I age I’m getting more and more sqeemish about stuff like this. In fact I probably wont be buying any appricot smuckers jam anytime soon. Eeewwww….
Well, I’m kinda weird that way – I not only look at but smell whatever I’m about to eat. I eat slowly, one bite at a time. In the rare event that I cook something canned, I examine it as I stir it during cooking. Not necessarily looking for a critter, but more to get into the idea of what it’s going to be like to eat it. But yeah, I think if there was a gecko in there, I’d probably see it early on. A worm, maybe not.
Maybe I have eaten stuff I wouldn’t want to know about. Probably all of us have. But knowingly, I don’t think I could proceed.
Then again, I just polished off a box of rice crisps while reading a website. Coulda been something buried in there and I wouldn’t know until it was too late . . . OK, I don’t want to think about this any more . . . .
LOL!!! I’ve been thinking about it too. I have NEVER looked at ever single mushroom before.
Shrooms will take you places you never, ever drempt existed. The voice of experience speaking here.
LOL!!! That’s one experience I’ve never experienced.
Eww… that is disgusting!! I have never found anything in any of my cans/jars… but will definitely be looking now! I would throw the whole thing away regardless of how many limbs were still attached to the critter!!
When I was making breakfast this morning I was looking at the three jams in the fridge door. I found my self picking up the Smuckers and putting it back it was blackberry not apricot but I still found myself remembering the bug pic. Eeeewwww.
LOL!!! Kinda creepy isn’t it. I did that with stuff I opened yesterday too!!