Warning: your orange juice contains… bugs

A lovely glass of juice, incredibly healthy. But what you may not know: every glass of orange juice also contains some crushed bugs. Unhealthy? ‘No, all those extra proteins are actually good for you.’

Fruit flies are incredibly simple creatures: they fly around, find their mate (usually somewhere among the ripe fruit or in your green bin), mate and lay eggs. When those eggs hatch, the whole cycle starts all over again. Nature is beautiful, but it’s less fun when that nature is flapping around your ears because you forgot to put your watermelon salad in the fridge or left some leftover wine on the counter. Are those fruit flies driving you crazy? With these tips your home will be bug-free again in no time.

Falling in love-engaged-eggs

In a household, those flies are annoying, but no more than that. Now imagine you have a factory producing orange juice or other fruit juice. Those little creatures can smell that from miles away, and with their lightning-fast falling in love-engaged-eggs routine, entire swarms of the pests are flying around in no time. Is that a problem? No, because fruit flies are essentially clean animals, according to Marcel Dicke, professor of entomology at Wageningen University. “We know that houseflies eat feces and dead animals. So it’s not very hygienic when they then sit on your cheese and meat.” Fruit flies don’t do that; they only hang out in your fruit.

In the carton

And in your fruit juice, the professor explains. ‘For example, we know that they are found in cartons of orange juice. There is a limit to this: manufacturers have to check that there aren’t too many eggs in the fruit pulp.’ Wait, what?!?! So there are fruit flies in a carton of orange juice? It was almost inevitable, but it’s still confronting when you read it like that. And is it unhealthy? Absolutely not: ‘Fruit pulp is extremely healthy; you get extra protein from it,’ says Dicke.

Read also:

• 5 unexpected things you can do with limoncello
• 6 things you’d better keep chilled
• Shocking: are avocados actually vegan?

Source: RTL Nieuws