dead slug in a cauliflower

ffym

Slugs on veg is normal, the farmers chemicals usually get rid of them. If you find one there is nothing wrong with the food - quite the opposite.
Soaking in salted water is the old way to cleanse food. It isn't so neccessary with the chemically zapped food most of us buy.
If you are worried about your salt intake by doing it, simply rinse the veg in running water after it has had it's soak.
If you are boiling veg, adding salt to the water can improve the flavour. Just don't put any on the table to compensate! (Better still invest in a steamer).
It may sound Yuk but even if any of these things get through they are not poisonous! You may well have eaten a few without realising!!
The trendy description these days is, I think, "bush tucker"!

in_my_wellies

This really is a true story.

I used to be a Home Economics teacher and did meals on wheels for the pensioners near by. Another teacher donated a large box of caulis. The kids prepared all the veg as directed - blanching, then placing on baking sheets to open freeze. Next day they put it all in bags with the labels I had prepared. One group came and asked me for a label for the celery. But we didn't do celery. She showed me what they had collected and put in the bag. It did look like celery. It was 20oz of frozen green caterpillars!!!!!

Spendless

thriftlady wrote:

Sorry Spendless,I didn't mean to be sarcastic after all my OH would rather die of starvation than eat a cauliflower he might be O.K with the slug though

No need to apologise. I didn't take it as sarcasm. I thought you might not have seen the whole thread and was explaining how it had happened.

Mr_Proctalgia

Nothing worse than finding half a maggot in an Apple! Just need to get used to the fact that proper Fruit and Veg is so nice and good the the veggie animals want some too!
Live and let live I say!

Sarahsaver

I would have fed the slug to one of my hens and eaten the cauliflower. At least maybe it shows it wasnt smothered with pesticides.

Chipps

My niece has never forgotten the time when I found a well-cooked caterpillar in my broccolli at a family meal (fortunately before I ate any broccolli) I cut the caterpillary bit off & ate the rest - after carefully checking each bit.
After all, I would rather the food was healthy enough to sustain life - if it is poisonous to caterpillars and the like, what will it do to me?

geo555

What do you think happens to all fruit and veg when its growing? If you want to pay extra for someone to pick off all the bugs and nicely package them for you, fine. That doesn't mean that there wasn't any bugs on them in the first place. Like other say, ALWAYS wash your fruit ang veg before eating.

frosty

My husband refuses to eat broccoli because about 20 years ago I had cooked some with our sunday lunch,I washed it but I didnt notice the catterpillars on it :eek: they were exactly the same colour as the broccoli,the worst thing was I felt so cruel because I had steamed them to death,I dont buy it anymore.My husband was the only one to eat the catterpillars thankfully :j .

Iguana

I think it says a lot about the perfectionist society we live in; once upon a time it would have normal to find bugs and insects on our food; its now seen as abnormal when we do.

Gingham_Ribbon

I accidentally ate a tiny caterpillar in a piece of brocolli once. I only realised when I saw a perfect little green caterpillar in the bite I was about to take and realised the previous bite had a very odd texture.

Not great for a vegetarian.

I found a grub inside a pepper when I first started buying organic and I threw the whole lot away. Now it doesn't bother me. But tiny bugs in cauli or broccoli would make me quiver. Mainly because of the time I added broccoli to a pasta bake with cheese sauce and realised half way through eating it that the black bits weren't pepper.

(And then there was a time I picked a bit out of my teeth during school dinners and a fly was wriggling on my finger...)

Should I stop now?