9 Bugs You Had No Idea You Were Eating

#1 Dactylopius Coccus in red food coloring

Dactylopius Coccus is an insect that is commonly used to give foods that beautiful carmine red color. The color is extracted from the insects (the females) by crushing their abdomens.

A few examples of common foods containing this dye:

Red Skittles, Swedish Fish, (red colored candies in general) red fruit drinks, fake crab, maraschino cherries, and many others. These bugs are often used to color makeup as well.

#2 Aphids: Crushing news about hops

Hops are swarming with aphids in unbelievable amounts. The actual aphid to hop ratio is something like 2,500 aphids per every 10 grams of hops.

#3 Thrips

Thrips love frozen veggies such as asparagus, brussels sprouts, and broccoli. The FDA allows up to 40 thrips per 100 grams of frozen asparagus. Other foods that might come to your plate with a few thrips on or in them are canned spinach, hops, and apple butter.

#4 Cockroach remnants in chocolate bars

The FDA allows up to 60 insects remnants per 100 grams of chocolate before rejecting it. Generally, there are around 8 insect bits in every chocolate bar!

#5 The Kerria Lacca: Shellac

In the wild, the Kerria lacca bug excretes a fluid that helps it stick to the trees that they inhabit. The secretion is later scraped off the tree and processed for use in food. It's what gives candy, pills, and even apples that have lost their luster a new glossy sheen.

#6 Fruit flies

Fruit flies can be found in just about every carton of citrus juice sold in supermarkets. There might be as many as 5 flies in your next 8 oz. cup of orange juice!

Worse yet, raisins and tomato sauce often contain a shocking number of fruit fly eggs.

#7 Caterpillars and friends in canned and frozen spinach

Small caterpillars or caterpillar fragments are allowed by the FDA in canned and frozen spinach in alarming amounts. Additionally, other insects from this same list are also likely to be present in the same container.

#8 Maggots in canned mushrooms

The FDA legally allows canned mushrooms to contain up to 19% maggots! Better start buying fresh.

#9 Mites in canned mushrooms

It turns out that in addition to the maggots, mites are also contaminating canned mushrooms in abundance! For a small 3.5 oz can, the FDA allows the presence of up to 74 mites.