Weevils in dried pasta, oh the horror

[Jingthing]

I reckon most people that have bought pasta regularly over the years eventually run into this. I certainly have in the past, both in Thailand and the U.S. but it hasn't happened to me recently. Until now. 

 

Recently, my favorite brand and variety of not at all cheap imported Italian pasta bought at a well known and unnamed high end grocery store has shown up with WEEVILS. twice.

 

I buy the pasta and store it without much fuss but as soon as I open it I put it into a well sealed clean plastic tubular pasta container. 

 

So the question is always did weevils come directly from the package in the store, or did the buggies somehow get into the food at home?

 

Well the first time I didn't notice the bugs until they were already in the plastic storage container after I had used some a few times without noticing (yuck). But I really like this type of pasta, so I bought another package and this time as soon as I put the new package in the container -- more bugs.

 

So probably came from the store but theoretically possible for them to enter the plastic bag in my home as I did store the bag for some days before opening? 

 

Well the normal thing would be to take the package back to the store to complain, but I was feeling too lazy for that, so just tossed the new bag.

 

So why am I posting this? Well to hear other weevil horror stories, but also perhaps as a suggestion to open your pasta as soon as you bring it home and then put it into sealed storage. If you see bugs then, then you know 100 percent the infestation happened before you brought it home.

 

I have another type of pasta that I store that has not being showing weevils, so that's evidence it's not a home infestation situation.

 

In any case, now I'm off buying my very favorite pasta indefinitely and of course I can't name the brand or variety or where I bought it,  this being Thailand. 

 

Bummer. Or more apt -- bugger. 

 

Another paranoid thought. Often you see pasta DISCOUNTED. I'm always skeptical about why it's being discounted. I usually look at the expiry date which would be a clue but it's usually not near expiry, so why the discount? Could it be  … WEEVILS? 

 

Another that may be worth doing is when buying pasta, shake the bag around a bit and see if you can see signs of life in there. 

 

Of course there are weevils in other kinds of foods -- flour, rice, etc. 

Edited May 8, 2019 by Jingthing

[Crossy]

Never found beasties in pasta, rice certainly.

 

They float when you wash it, I would be washing the pasta too.

 

They're unlikely to cause you any issues even if you eat them (extra protein).

[OneEyedPie]

Weevils cost extra.  You're on a winner at the regular price.

[Lacessit]

Turn the pasta out on a plate, and leave it next to an open window. The geckos will be very grateful to you after exhausting themselves chasing mosquitoes.

[vogie]

I used to buy bags of barley, and on many occasion I've found these critters in the barley (also rice), when the crop is grown there might be the eggs of these insects on the stalk or wherever, so when harvested they will be bagged up with the barley etc. Best thing to do when buying rice or any grain for that matter is to freeze it for three days, it will kill anything in the bag, when I soak my rice the critters will float to the top of the water.

[RJRS1301]

Just extra protein, no probs

[Jingthing]

27 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Never found beasties in pasta, rice certainly.

 

They float when you wash it, I would be washing the pasta too.

 

They're unlikely to cause you any issues even if you eat them (extra protein).

From a culinary POV, washing pasta before (or after) cooking is a really, really bad idea!

In fact the pros use some of the starchy water in the sauce when coating the pasta with the sauce in the pan.

 

I suppose you're right, eating the cooked bugs would be OK, but too gross for me to consider. 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2470092/Bag-unopened-pasta-bought-Tesco-crawling-HUNDREDS-Weevil-beetles-horrified-mother.html

Edited May 8, 2019 by Jingthing

[Crossy]

14 minutes ago, vogie said:

I used to buy bags of barley,

 

The mind does play tricks, I was trying to work out what you would be doing with used bags of barley.

[Crossy]

3 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

I supposed you're right, eating the cooked bugs would be OK, but too gross for me to consider. 

 

Just skim them off the cooking water when they float.

 

[Jingthing]

So this may be another one of those "there are two kinds of people in the world" things.

Those that toss food that's infested with weevils, and those that eat it anyway!

 

[vogie]

4 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

So this may be another one of those "there are two kinds of people in the world" things.

Those that toss food that's infested with weevils, and those that eat it anyway!

 

You have probably eaten a lot worse when you've dined out, bon appetit.????

Edited May 8, 2019 by vogie

[Jingthing]

1 minute ago, vogie said:

You have probably eaten a lot worse when you've have dined out, bon appetit.????

No doubt but if my restaurant food was crawling with live bugs I would send it back, yes?

[OneEyedPie]

Just now, Jingthing said:

No doubt but if my restaurant food was crawling with live bugs I would send it back, yes?

Not many bugs survive the deep fryer / boiling and wouldn't necessarily be obvious.  Certainly not crawling.

[tifino]

woo hoo!

'

 - free snacks for the Quails and Goldfish

[mauGR1]

One thing should be considered, is there more pasta, or more insects ?

[from the home of CC]

4 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

No doubt but if my restaurant food was crawling with live bugs I would send it back, yes?

the tomato sauce would hide 'em..

[worgeordie]

I have 3 packets of Pasta in the freezer right now to kill the weevils,

a long time ago i bought a tub of Quaker oats,opened it up and it was

just heaving with weevils,took it back to shop got my money back,on

my next shopping trip to the same shop,the tub was back on the shelf,

i thought and suspected they would do that ,so put a mark on the tub.

 

regards worgeordie

[KittenKong]

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

Well the normal thing would be to take the package back to the store to complain, but I was feeling too lazy for that, so just tossed the new bag.

What a waste. I've had weevils in all sorts of things: Ryvita, flour, muesli, cornflakes.

 

I just microwave the stuff dry for a few minutes. That kills the weevils and it's fairly easy to separate them out afterwards, though often I just leave them in as I'm really not bothered about eating them.

[Gecko123]

If you examine a weevil invested strand of spaghetti closely, you'll see that the weevil bores holes into the strand, maybe even nesting? I've eaten spaghetti with no visible weevils but which is riddled with bore holes and in my opinion the texture of the pasta was degraded (mushier) than normal. I once went through a package of spaghetti strand by strand and cut out all the infested bore holes with a pair of scissors, and cooked the remaining uninfested pasta which was fine. I have found that Agnesi brand pasta is the least likely to have weevils. I think it may have something to do with packaging. I once discussed this problem with a Big C shelf stocker and she immediately reached for and showed me a package of pasta with red trim (can't remember the brand name) which was absolutely loaded with weevils. Flicking the package with your finger and checking for weevils is a good idea, especially if mfg date is a little long in the tooth.

 

With white rice, I buy brands with metalic packaging, and immediately transfer it to airtight plastic containers when I get home. This has completely eliminated the rice weevil problem. Brown rice I store in the refrigerator which is recommended because the bran will go rancid over time at room temperature. Refrigerator storage of course also completely eliminates infestation problems as well.

 

Edited May 8, 2019 by Gecko123

[Jingthing]

Yeah, I assumed the pasta would be degraded. Weirdly, with this last batch which didn't seem to be crawling with weevils, the pasta looked damaged. It's not like I put it under a microscope though. I do know that freezing kills the weevils so if you're going to eat the food, that might be a better idea than microwaving. 

[watcharacters]

53 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

Just skim them off the cooking water when they float.

 

 

You are correct and they do contain protein.     I'm not of the mind to eat them however until the world's food supply gets even more critical.

 

I'll  gladly send any I may find in the future to you if you'd simply provide a usable receiving address.

[OneEyedPie]

42 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

the tomato sauce would hide 'em..

That's not all it's hiding.

[Jingthing]

1 minute ago, OneEyedPie said:

That's not all it's hiding.

Don't insult waiters. 

[DrDave]

To answer one of the OP's questions, the weevils can come from any number of sources - including the packaging facility, warehouse, store and even the consumer's home.

 

My wife used to own an Asian grocery in the US, and sometimes rice delivered from the distributor would contain a small amount of live weevils. This happened more often in the rice packed in clear bags, as opposed to the large 20-50 pound white bags. We made a practice of cycling all incoming clear-bagged rice through a large freezer for a couple of days to kill any weevils that may (or may not) be inside. In the event that a customer subsequently found any bugs, we'd refund or give a replacement (although I doubt any Thai shops would do that). 

[Denim]

I found a cockroach leg once in an order of fried rice so I know how the OP feels. Still , all things considered I think the OP got the lesser of two weevles.

[Morch]

We got them in rice a couple of times, I think when we didn't buy "our" brands or from a shop we know and trust. I was all for the microwave treatment, but Mrs. insisted on manually removing them. Took her a long while, as I recall. Sieving and cursing.

 

Mentions of weevils, always reminds me of this bit from an Arundhati Roy piece:

 

"Though India is technically free to export its agricultural produce, in practice most of it cannot be exported because it doesn't meet the First World's "environmental standards." (You don't eat bruised mangoes or bananas with mosquito bites or rice with a few weevils in it, whereas we don't mind the odd mosquito and the occasional weevil.)" 

 

Which is all very fine, and she might even have a point in that essay, but not quite accurate (at least in my experience) when it comes to middle-class and upward Indians feel about it. All the more amusing was sitting in a nearby restaurant table with her getting a little fussy over some dishes and giving staff an earful.

[Jingthing]

The age old question.

 

Weevils in dried pasta -- Pets or Meat?

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

known and unnamed high end grocery store has shown up with WEEVILS. twice.

Why are you complaining about free extra protein in your pasta.

You remind of " excuse me waiter there's a fly in my soup" waiter said keep your voice down everyone will want one.

[CanuckThai]

I thought I hit the jackpot last year, I found a nice box of Italian made lasagna noodles.  I had dreams of a homemade multi layer lasagna, lots of homemade sauce, layers of meat, tons of mozzarella etc.  My routine is, store packaged dry pasta (the spaghetti, the linguine, the fusilli etc)  in a large clear airtight "snaplock" plastic storage bin.  So be it.  I do the same (separate bins) with rices, and cooking stuff.  Anyhow, I pulled the cardboard box of lasagna noodles out of the bin, low and behold, the noodles were covered with weevils and weevil tunnels.  I cleaned off the least damaged, and removed the bugs. The noodles didn't survive the boiling, and it was useless....

[dotpoom]

Just stick the bag in the freezer.