TikTok Video Shows Washing Strawberries Causes Tiny Worms To Squirm Out

Look away, strawberry lovers!

A viral video is starting a terrifying trend on TikTok. User Seleste Radcliffe was just cleaning her strawberries in saltwater when she made a “berry” scary discovery when tiny worms began squirming out of the fruit. “Apparently if you wash your strawberries in water and salt, all the bugs will come out — which, I didn’t even know there were bugs in there,” Radcliffe said in the clip as she pours the berries into a bowl of brine.

“Look at that, look at that,” she says, before bringing the camera in close to show watchers what appears to be tiny bugs moving across the seemingly fresh strawberry.

The video has already racked up over 2.4 million views and counting — watch it below!

Radcliffe isn't the only TikTok user to test out the trend. “You are not gonna believe what actually came out of mine,” a user named Krista Torres wrote with a video of her washing strawberries before getting grossed out when she holds up a berry crawling with little white bugs. “I am so disgusted right now.”

However, the bugs — albeit very unappetizing, we can admit — are essentially harmless. According to Washington’s Cloud Mountain Farm Center, the bugs you see are actually fruit fly larvae. The flies actually lay their its ripened fruits like berries and cherries, often leaving behind a dark splotch that more often than not goes unnoticed by produce shoppers. As gross as it may seem, the center stated “the fruit will not hurt you if it has a little extra protein.”

The Food and Drug Administration also stands by this, stating “it is economically impractical to grow, harvest, or process raw products that are totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring unavoidable defects” like everyday bugs.

Photo: Getty Images


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