Found slugs & caterpillars in my broccoli 3 times in the past week

[Lightupmyh]

I wash them when I first unpack the broccoli then chop it then wash again checking for bugs but it's happened 3 times now that once cooked and I'm dishing out there's been either a slug or caterpillar on it.

I can't eat it once I've seen that. Would you eat it?

Free protein!

I keep getting really old looking broccoli but did once recently get a giant beetle crawling out of it, and it didn't crawl away either, it wanted to go back into the head of broccoli!

Would you still eat it? It really puts me off

I'd still eat it
It used to be the norm years ago. My mum always let us hold the little green caterpillars she found in the cabbage on a Sunday.

Good sign it’s fresh and been recently picked. ALL fresh fruit and veg will have had bugs all over it before you got it. Totally natural. Just give it a rinse.

Of course I’d eat it. That’s what happens with vegetables - slugs, snails, worms and bugs and all sorts crawl all over it. It grows in/on the earth.

Check carefully and rinse to get rid of any creatures. Then soak in salted water for about half an hour. Then prep as you normally would.

Oh...just seen that you have found them in your cooked food. Well that’s not very conducive to wanting to eat it, to be fair!

I’ve never actually had that as I’m pretty careful to clean veg thoroughly.

Oh I missed that you are finding them AFTER cooking!
You need to soak your veg in salted water as the previous poster said and no, I wouldn't eat it if you have cooked bugs (not envy)

And even the soaking is more than a lot of people do!

But I do hate slugs so if I found one in my portion of cooked broccoli on my plate I think that’d properly put me off. If it’s on the raw or fresh produce it doesn’t seem to bother me so much.

Yes, I’d still eat it.

Which supermarket?

I once got a live snail in a bag of "washed" salad. Luckily I am a germaphobe and found it when I was washing it. Poor snail.

My uncle would only pick fruit if it had holes in it 🤷🏻‍♀️ he was a forrest engineer (something like that, don't know the title in english)

Caterpillars and slugs are fine. Just wash it properly

You just need to give them a better wash before cooking to make sure anything is removed. Most of my veg comes in an organic veg box and there are usually insects and small slugs in amongst it, just like there would be if you'd grown it in the garden. I take it as a good sign!

Meh, I’d just be pleased it hadn’t been doused in pesticides!

Yes same here - organic veg so bugs etc are a good sign.

What would be the reason for not eating it? Slug or caterpillar poo on the veg? You’re washing and cooking the veg - any tiny traces of poo are washed off and then the veg is pretty much sterilised by cooking. I hate that people are so fussy and squeamish that they’ll waste good food. Veg grows in the soil, there’s a world of animal life in and on it!

I grow my own broccoli, little buggers are prolific this year! And yes, I’d eat it.