uck...found a worm

[nuttie]

i purchased a large bad of dates from local club store and made a fabulous batch of "date bars"....that lasted maybe three days....last night i decided to make a new recipie and when i opened the bag there on top of the pile of dates was this little white worm....((<<gag>>)) would you discard this bag and it's contents or is it no big deal? ....i just zipped up the bag and put it back in the pantry....
:confused:

[yumyum]

lol, I assume you took the worm out before putting it back in the pantry. Uhm. I loved eating "fresh" dates this december. So juicy and soft, like pure candy, especially dipped in grated coconut or sesame seeds. But I also discovered, that later in the month, the boxes with dates that we got, were runny and soggy and some of them were getting moldy real quick. So fresh dates get bad, after a while, and start smelling like alcohol. Fermented, I guess.

I don't know if you got the dried dates or the fresh ones, but if you find a worm, then there was an egg, and if there is one egg, there may be more. I admit, that I would chuck the dates to avoid getting any eggs or worms into my digestive system.

It may not even be the farmers fault, that there are eggs in there. It can have happened during packaging, or even when they were opened in your kitchen. Big flies sometimes lay eggs in butter, so other insects may also take the opportunity to lay eggs in fruits that they have access to in the kitchen.

Since you are not boiling or otherwise cooking the dates, the eggs will be intact when you eat them.

[rawfigure]

take them back. when I buy any dates, prunes and such I immediately store in freezer until needed.

[Revvell]

Dates are sweet. Dates get wormy. If there was one worm, there were probably more. Don't ask me how I know.:o

If they were fresh, they "should" not have been wormy. If they'd been kept refrigerated before sale, they "should" not have been wormy. How long ago did you purchase? Still have the receipt? If so, return them. If not, I'd toss and begin again.

Revvell

[SamuelWilson]

It is according to what type of worm it was. Fly larva definitely needs to be tossed. Small caterpillars are fine, just pick them off. It lets you know you have real organic dates.

My romaine lettuce has leaf hoppers on a regular basis. It doesn't bother me. I just pick them off and put them outside.