Flies are coming off my broccoli

[Interestingnamesuggestion]

I took the plastic wrap off a head of broccoli this evening and as I started to cut it up, I noticed a white fly in front of my face. I saw another one and I put the broccoli under the kitchen tap to rinse it off. Suddenly more and more tiny white flies started coming out! I couldn't see any on the broccoli but they just kept appearing!

The broccoli is outside now in a tin but I'm still thinking about it. I'm not usually a wimp about food and I've picked out a boiled slug before, discreetly hid it and carried on eating. But this is making me uncomfortable for some reason. There were so many and they just kept coming out.

So what should I do? Can I still cook and eat the broccoli (and tell my kids it's safe to eat)?

YANBU: Stop being sensitive, of course it'll be fine to eat.

YABU: Put it straight into the outside bin.

Hmm, I'm not overly squeamish but I'd probably ditch the broccoli. Not loving the idea of fly maggots and eggs all tucked up in all the nooks and crannies!

How weird! We had this exact thing on Sunday. To be honest I rinsed all bits of broccoli off really well and cooked and ate it anyway lol

So far. Still alive!

I’m a minger and I would just bin the broccoli

With an infestation it would be the outside food waste bin for me. But, at least you know it's not full of pesticides.

We back onto crop fields, for some reason there are millions of those tiny white flies about, im not surprised they ended up in your broccoli!

Oh heck, I've just bought some organic broccoli and I'm scared to open it now. Better do it outside.

I’d have binned it but this is one of the reasons I only buy unpackaged broccoli as I figure if you give it a shake in the shop something would appear if it was infested and you wash it anyway .

Just white fly- give it a wash and eat up.

I had this earlier in the week. I had one of those twin packs and it was the second one that had flies coming off so I binned it. Was from Aldi! Where did you get yours?

Do not eat it!!!!!!

Oh, looks like it's cabbage white fly and apparently harmless.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/cabbage-whitefly#:~:text=Cabbage%20whitefly%20are%20small%20white%2Dwinged,often%20not%20a%20serious%20problem.

I had the same! I just cooked and ate it, I thought well the white flies have all flown away now! If I see maggots then it's going straight in the bin but none so far.

Ours was loose broccoli. But as I said we just went for it anyway lol

@BalakayAARon you're right, it wasn't even labelled organic! I got a great deal!

Basically I've already decided to eat it on the basis that one anonymous Mumsnet poster said she's done it before and it's fine 🤣

It was from Tesco.

Edit: actually 2 people have said this now. Even better!

I'm going to have to check my broccoli now.

I've had no end of greenfly in my lettuce this year - across different shops, different types of lettuce.

Anyone else had other 'extras'?

Happy to influence you in this way. To be honest it was Sunday so I have survived three days now as has everyone else that ate it - at least three other people - although I didn’t tell them there were white flies on it!

I once had a head of broccoli that was running alive with caterpillars (green ones) when I took the wrapping off, all still alive. I didn't eat broc for a very long time and im not really squeamish about that sort of thing normally.

We've had a lot of infested lettuce too. And fruit flies in the kitchen

I wouldn't eat it.

I’ve seen advice in older cookbooks to soak cauliflower in salted water before cooking to get any insects out, maybe that would work?

I think it was actually a caterpillar rather than a slug that I found boiled in a serving of broccoli. It was gross but I was mostly just happy that I'd noticed it before putting it in my mouth!

I wouldn't be happy about multiple caterpillars but I might leave it outside and wait to see if they would crawl away.

Exactly what I did tonight, tbf though I did only see a few little flies when I initially opened the pack.

I've not had that before but had loads of dead black flies on an organic broccoli before. Impossible to get them all out of the nooks and crannies and it went straight in the bin. I no longer waste my money on organic broccoli!

Don't think I could even look at a broccoli after that ordeal!

Maybe you don't have the best of luck with broccolis OP?😂

🤣 We eat a lot of broccoli so proportionally it's not much.