Woman shares ‘gross’ discovery inside store-bought fruit: ‘I cannot unsee this’

A TikTok user is drawing praise online after sharing her “hack” for cleaning fruit — and the “gross” reason it’s necessary.

The video, posted by Seleste Radcliffe, shows what can happen when someone uses saltwater to clean a store-bought package of strawberries.

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Radcliffe, who demonstrates the rinsing method in her clip, quickly explains its importance: Salt, as it turns out, helps draw out the bugs.

The realization that there are often tiny bugs living inside strawberries came as an unfortunate surprise to both Radcliffe and many of her followers.

“GROSS IT WAS JUMPING!!!!! BRB CRYING,” Radcliffe captioned her video, which ends with tiny, white “critters” leaping out from inside her fruit.

Radcliffe’s discovery is technically nothing new. During growing, harvesting and packaging, bugs find their way into all kinds of food according to the Scientific American.

The tiny creatures are actually relatively common in many items: For example, canned juices can possibly contain one maggot for every 250 milliliters.

Those facts didn’t stop TikTok users from sharing their disgust though, with many commenting how surprised they were to see the bugs leaping from Radcliffe’s food.

“Never eating strawberries again,” one user wrote.

“I cannot unsee this,” another added.

Others, meanwhile, expressed that they were either aware of the bugs or simply didn’t mind eating them.

“No I need extra protein,” one user joked.

In general, insects aren’t harmful to consume — as long as they don’t exceed the FDA’s contamination guidelines, which lay out product-by-product rules for how many bugs are allowed to accidentally find their way inside our food.

As for the saltwater? That’s a proven method to test for bug infestations, according to a report by the North Carolina State extension. Other guidelines recommend vinegar, or sometimes sugar, for drawing out the tiny creatures.

If you liked this story, check out In The Know’s article on the man who lives in a 100-square-foot home and grows his own food.

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