Strawberries are some of the most irresistible berries out there, and many of us just can't wait to eat them when we see them. You can dip them in chocolate, soak them in honey, or make them into a strawberry daiquiri or a strawberry banana smoothie. They are quite pleasing to the eye, but a recent TikTok video by Buzzfeed reporter Krista Torres revealed that there is more to strawberries than meets the eye. In the video, Torres soaked strawberries in a bowl filled with water and salt for 30 minutes. They may look like delectable, juicy fruits, but here is the gross reason why you should soak your strawberries in saltwater.
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00:00The TikTok community has launched food trends like pancake cereal and Starbucks Frappuccino
00:05hacks, but sometimes the platform reveals truths that are a little harder to swallow.
00:10Krista Torres, a reporter at BuzzFeed, recently noticed a new TikTok trend, soaking strawberries
00:16in saltwater. Why? Because users have been finding that bugs live inside the berries.
00:22Torres decided to investigate the claim, which she totally didn't believe could be true,
00:26until she actually tried it.
00:28Torres filled a bowl with water, at room temperature, poured in a lot of sea salt, put her strawberries
00:34in, and then waited for about 30 minutes. There were no bugs floating around in the
00:37bowl like she had seen in the TikTok videos, but to her horror, when she picked up the
00:42strawberries, she discovered bugs, which she also described as worms, crawling out of them.
00:48I am so disgusted right now.
00:52Where did these worms come from? Torres did some research and found out that they are
00:56the offspring of a type of fruit fly, also known as the spotted-winged drosophila, or
01:02SWD, that can be found throughout most mainland U.S. states. Cornell University reported that
01:07this fly is most attracted to berries such as raspberries, blackberries, blueberries,
01:12and strawberries. The SWD is notable because it lays eggs inside fresh fruit, often before
01:19of overripe or rotting fruit, which its cousins prefer.
01:23You might be concerned about the possibility of ingesting bugs with your berries, but the
01:27reality is that you've been consuming them for years but just didn't know it. The U.S.
01:32Food and Drug Administration has limits on the amounts of bugs food can contain, but
01:37items like broccoli, canned tomatoes, and even hops contain insect fragments or even
01:42whole insects. If you want peace of mind, you can start soaking your strawberries and
01:47other produce in salt water, but that doesn't mean you'll be able to eliminate bugs 100
01:52percent.
01:53According to NutritionFacts.org, a 10 percent salt solution is a good way to wash pesticides
01:58off of fruits and vegetables, but the jury's out on how to best remove bugs. Some say to
02:03soak the berries in salt water for five minutes, others say up to 30 minutes. Some recommend
02:08cold water, while others think warm water is best since the salt dissolves faster. But
02:13everyone is clear on one thing you must rinse them thoroughly afterwards, or else your
02:18strawberries will be salty. A recent how-to post about cleaning strawberries was shared
02:23on Facebook more than 124,000 times and counting, and offers some more specific guidance. Lauren
02:29Gambrell, who credited TikTok for teaching her, wrote that you need a bowl with one part
02:34white vinegar, four parts cold water, and a sprinkle of salt. Let the strawberries soak
02:39in the mixture for five minutes before thoroughly rinsing the berries and letting them dry.
02:44While the thought of noshing on bug-filled berries may make you queasy, it's not really
02:48all that unusual. And these bugs, even if you eat them, won't hurt you, according to
02:53CNN. Basically, the critters you might discover after soaking your strawberries in salt water
02:58aren't harmful for human consumption, and you're basically doing it on the regular anyway
03:03and have been for your entire life. According to Greg Loeb, an entomologist and professor
03:08at Cornell,
03:09"...if you're eating fresh produce, you're eating bugs. Sometimes we entomologists joke
03:14that, hey, it's just a little bit more protein."
03:17Also, experts note that you've probably downed a bunch of tiny bugs over the course of your
03:21lifetime, and even trying to rid your fresh produce of insects doesn't guarantee you won't
03:26ever eat one again. In other words, you eat bugs all the time, and they don't hurt you,
03:31and it isn't always possible to get rid of them completely. So cheer up, clean your fruits
03:36and vegetables with water before preparing and eating, and enjoy your healthy snack,
03:40knowing that any bugs you consume are teensy tiny and won't make you sick.