'extra's in spice'

[foureyes1941]

When I came home from India earlier on this year I brought quite a few spices with me thinking that they would be the real 'McCoy' Yesterday I opened  a silver foil packet of methi to make some shami kebabs and later on after I had added the dried leaves to the mix noticed tiny little insects crawling on my cook book and on closer observation found others in the bag too, so there goes 1 klo of minced meat and 500 ml of chana dhal into the rubbish bin and lesson learnt, no more spice from India when I next go. Anyone else noticed these in home bought packets?

[Peripatetic Phil]

Anyone else noticed these in home bought packets?

No, but nor would I worry about them.  It's all good protein, and you almost certainly would not notice their presence in the finished dish. 

** Phil.

[Sverige]

I've definately found little tiny black specs floating to the surface in my rice-washing water and on closer inspection realised they were some kind of tiny insects. Never really bothered me though, I'm sure we ingest all sorts of insect life and haven't some futurologists speculated that the only way an ever growing human population will feed itself in future is to rely on insect protein for food?

[loveitspicy]

The insects in the rice water are those little black beetle things - we have them all the time - If you put the rice in the water let it stand for 5 then stir it through with your hand they generally float to the top and you can scoop them out.


best, Rich

[redman1212]

I've spotted those little critters in bags of rice and other stuff. One way I found to kill them all off efficiently was to put the bag of rice into the freezer for a day or so. The cold kills the bugs and doesn't (seem to) affect the rice

[foureyes1941]

Unfortunately I have no room in the freezer it's full of base sauce and pre cooked chicken as this does seem the perfect solution. I do have other things in too but this website is so good I'm starting to get carried away lol!

[emin-j]

Brought a packet of pasta back from Italy last year for a work colleague, he didn't open the bag for a few months but when he did it was alive with black insects (alive !) 

[littlechilie]

check the date on the products you purchase, this is normal the issue here..

[Ghoulie]

Mites and weevils renowned for infesting flour, wheat, pasta, rice & biscuits etc.  The bugs lay their eggs in the original plant seeds and the resultant bugs you get are what survives the millinh process.
My ma used to sieve mites out of flour before she baked 60  years back.
Protein - will do you no harm