This trick is berry unappealing.
A new viral trend has TikTok users soaking strawberries in saltwater — and then expressing shock as tiny worms emerge from the fruit.
“Apparently if you wash your strawberries in water and salt, all the bugs will come out — which, I didn’t even know there were bugs in there,” says TikTok user Seleste Radcliffe in a video, dumping a box of strawberries into a bowl of salted water. “Look at that, look at that,” she says, zooming the camera in on suddenly moving specks on the otherwise healthy-looking strawberries.
“After nearly 25 years of living, TikTok taught me how to properly wash strawberries,” writes Lauren Mackenzie Gambrell on Facebook. “They are FILLED with tiny bugs and tons of dirt!”
Her post, which includes photos of dirty water left over from soaking her berries, has racked up more than 11,000 likes. “Enjoy your clean strawberries y’all,” she cheerily concludes.
“You are not gonna believe what actually came out of mine,” says TikTok user Krista Torres in a caption for her strawberry-cleaning video. “I am so disgusted right now,” she says, holding up a strawberry soaked in salt water for 30 minutes with small bugs now visible on it.
“Still trying to think happy thoughts today,” she writes after finding her dreams still haunted by the image of the animated strawberry the following morning.
According to Cloud Mountain Farm Center in Washington state, the little critters that people are outing on social media are fruit-fly larvae. The bug lays its eggs on berries and cherries as they ripen, often giving the spot a slight dark mark. While the bugs’ presence may seem gross, the company says that “the fruit will not hurt you if it has a little extra protein.”
That’s backed up by the Food and Drug Administration, which includes them in the category of “unavoidable defects.” The FDA adds that “it is economically impractical to grow, harvest, or process raw products that are totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring” specimens like the visitors that are bugging out strawberry lovers.
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