I would love some tips on checking for bugs in food. Even though I check, I don't find bugs and I always feel like I am doing something wrong!
For lettuce, I wash the lettuce, dry it and then hold it up to a light source. Any better tips?
We can discuss any fruit/veggie/grain! Any tips are welcome.
Wow, SJS, looks like you're the first of the brainstorms to actually get your thread started. GO, girl!!!!
~a~
They sell this light box that is very good for checking lettuce.
A good Magnifying Glass will reveal and uncover any bug tenaciously hiding on a lettuce leaf crevice. This will work providing you have good house lighting, or if you use sun light as the lighting source.
It's much easier if your food is very fresh.
With Romaine you need to have the attitude that the outer leaves are only the wrapping for the lettuce and discard the first or second layers of leaves without even looking at them.
Then cut away about the lower third of the Romaine (that's where bugs hang out) and discard.
Put the remains into water and agitate. Take one leaf at a time and move the leaf under running water rubbing your fingers and thumb along the creases. Look at each leaf. Repeat until done. Once you get the hang of the procedure, it goes very quickly, but don’t be lazy about it.
If the bugs are too small to be seen by the naked eye, then l’halacha the leaf is bug free; no need for a magnifying glass. Hashem created all food that grows from the ground to be eaten and enjoyed (without modern technology).
Nice post by 'cherrybim' about Romaine lettuce, but what about more "difficult" vegetables like broccoli (the florets), cauliflower, brussels sprouts and scallions?
bluh, I "cheat" and buy bodek for broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts.
For scallions, I cut off the green areas, slit them down the middle and then hold it up to the light as I would with lettuce. The white part does need to be checked (per what I've been told - someone please correct me if I am wrong!)
Anyone know if the soaking is a sephardic thing? Otherwise I'll start doing it.
Ames, do you soak the easily checkable part? (meaning the green part that you can slit and hold up to the light)Or just the white parts? Do you soak it in water or in soapy water?
No SJS, soaking is not a sephardic thing regarding vegetables. It is supposedly to loosen the bugs hold on the vegetables. I use romaine lettuce hearts, they are fairly clean. I usually check each leaf first, (the water droplets make it harder to check and I like the leaves dry. If I find then, I will wash the leaf under running water and gently brush the area where the bug is found. I would then re-check the leaf in the light.
regarding the use of strawberries, even soaking will not remove the bugs. I read somewhere, that a mashigaich, bought those big large first quality strawberrys (the Driscoll type) and they had soaked these beautiful strawberries and supposedly cleaned them very well. Bugs were found even after. It is understood that the bugs(thrips) maybe hiding under the seeds and are near impossible to remove. The only way to use strawberries is to peel them.
Regarding raspberries, I have not had fresh raspberries in ages. My mother had a raspberry bush in her backyard, one day while checking, I noticed tiny brown bugs(thrips) throughout the sections, unless you take each little tiny segment apart(therebye destroying the berry in the process) there is no possible way to eat them.
I have stopped buying and eating strawberries and have never purchased raspberries, because of my first hand account of finding the near impossible to remove bugs on them.
OK, I'm going to verify with my Rabbi, because regarding scallions, I always heard if the tops were bug free, then the thick white parts wouldn't have bugs. With leeks, I know you always have to cut each piece apart - leeks very very dirty vegetables. But the scallion bases are tighter.
OK I just found this:
http://www.star-k.org/cons-appr-vegetables.htm
Per the Star K (a fairly neutral Kashrut organization I think), scallions need to be checked as follows (which is sort of what I do, but I check everyone in a bunch):
Examine three scallions in a bunch as follows:
1. Slit scallion tubes and examine inside of tube closest to the bulb.
2. If no insects are found, scallions may be used.
3. If one insect is found, then all the scallions must be checked.
The OU put out a nice book on checking fruits and veggies. I have it and it's helpful
Squeak - I have that book too. I was going to suggest it as well. It mysteriously went missing and I forgot the title. Thanks for reminding me of the name.
I can just relate from my own experience. Without exaggeration, I have washed and checked thousands of heads of lettuce and scallions and other leafy vegetables over the years. I want to repeat - start with very fresh vegetables, it makes checking a lot easier and don't be afraid to cut away and throw away. When you have leafy vegetables that are not totally fresh, then it can be hard to quickly determine leaf "rot" from what may have been a living bug.
With scallions:
Buy a fresh bright green firm bunch (usually five or six shoots) line them up and cut off the tops with one slice so that they are even. Don't be concerned that you are discarding too much (I do this step both for checking purposes and for kashrus since you don’t know where their knife has been).
Line up the scallion bottoms and do the same to the root, slicing them off slightly above where the root ends, with one motion.
Now slice of the greens just above and below where the scallion greens join together so that the joint is totally removed, and discard. The joint may be a hiding place that's hard to check. Discard any leaves that are not totally green or fresh.
From the white lower part bulbs, peal off and discard the outer layer of scallion.
Take the upper bunch of scallion leaves which are now hollow tubes, and while holding loosely together in your fist, agitate briefly in slightly salty water. This procedure will clean your scallions and repeat usually once or twice until the water is totally clear (examine the water). Take leaves out of water and visually scan. You're done.
Now throw the scallion bulbs into salty water and agitate in the water and repeat. You know have clean and kosher scallions.
Again, once you get the hang of the procedure, it goes fast.
I will post again if you’re interested for my experience and procedures for strawberries, broccoli and cauliflower.
Remember, it’s much easier and more accurate for an individual (you) to check for bugs than for an institution or business (such as Bodek) to check large volumes of leafy vegetables. So why depend on Bodek when you are more reliable and don’t have to employ heteirim for your product.
cherrybim...I'd very much like to read the procedures you've found effective for broccoli (with florets), etc. thx!
Hi blubluh: To repeat, for vegetables that need checking - buy very fresh vegetables but DO NOT buy ORGANIC or from a farmers market; they are usually infested. BTW: I always assume that any leafy vegetable that I buy has bugs and go from there.
This is for both broccoli and cauliflower:
Cut and trim stems into florets. Cut off and discard any discoloration. Even if the discolored spots are not bugs; you don’t want to eat it anyway. If it’s very apparent that you’re going to have a hard time checking, then you shouldn’t have purchased it in the first place and throw away.
I put the florets into slightly salty water (you can use a few drops of liquid soap as well) and agitate vigorously. Repeat until water is clear (usually once or twice). Pass the florets under a spay of cold running water. Inspect a few thoroughly. You will have the cleanest and best tasting florets around. Peal the woody stems with a knife or peeler and you can eat what remains.
For strawberries: In truth, I have never found a bug in any of my strawberries. If you can, buy recognized brand strawberries and make sure the leaves are green and the berries firm like they were picked yesterday.
Cut off the green stem but don’t go too far down as to expose the inside (you will want to cut of the white unripe part since it is not sweet).
Put a few drops of soap into water and agitate. Repeat until there is no soap residue. Rinse and drain strawberries and inspect. Done.
Interesting: Once you’re used to washing all your vegetables (who knows where they’ve been or where the hands that handled them have been) and you see the dirt either floating or at the bottom of the water basin; you wander how anyone can eat vegetables without washing them, even without kashrus concerns.
Ames, I thought I would be smart and grow my own peppermint(NaNa) indoors. I grew them from seeds actually. Unfortunately, I somehow has spidermites on my mint and they were impossible to check.hey are very tiny, but they can be seen. Somehow in the potting mix, there were bugs. They have sprays to kill them, but I wanted them to be pesticide free. So I ended up dumping the plant.
I am bli neder NEVER eating fruits and vegetable AGAIN!!!!!!!!
yes, unless, maybe you can kill the bugs that are present in the soil. I did notice tiny bugs in the soil prior to planting, but thought they were there in the soil and would not come on the plants. I did'nt know they were spider mites at the time. they are very small black dots, maybe like the dot in the letter "i". I have grown basil last year indoors and they were clean and didn't have a problem with spidermites. Maybe you can somehow "sterelize" the soil, bye pouring boiling water to kill off any bugs, that might be around.
Sorry Ames,I never tried those pellets before, so I can not answer your question. I would suggest looking carefully to see anything moving. Maybe, you can zap the pellets in the Microwave, to kill any unwanted hitchhikers, then cool and use the pellets as needed. Avoid other household plants. Just today,i noticed spidermites on my mother's gardenia plant. You can tell if there is some kind of web around the leaves, and tiny dots moving along them. Like I said they are teeny tiny and they stick to the leaves and stems very well and don't come off with soaking, thereby making them very difficult to check.
oomis1105: join the club, i never ever eat fruits & veggies!
I just lost my appetite, first time reading this thread.
~a~
One only needs to check for bugs that can be seen by the naked eye. You do not have to use a microscope and other contraptions! I saw an ad for a bug checking device - this is not halachically required. Do you think they had lights with microscopes years ago?
We clean brocoli and cauliflower in a white bowl with salt and bicarbonate of soda. For some reason the bugs rise to the top of the water with the bicarb as it foams up, brilliant and easy. We clean aspargus with a baby toothbrush - works wonders!
Hashem gave us all these fruits and veggies to enjoy. If we weren't supposed to enjoy them he wouldn't have gven them to us. That's how I look at it.
Produce had no shailas years ago, because years ago we allowed the used of strong pesticides on our produce, to prevent these problems. Hmmm... poison in our produce
- bugs in our produce. I think I'll stick to chocolate (oh wait - that's a vegetable too! Dang, we can't eat ANYTHING these days!) I'll just have the fish.
I have never once seen copepods in my water, but ever since the business with the tap water, I am unable to drink it unless it is bottled water. I will use tap water for everything but straight drinking. BTW, ALL spigots in the kitchen have filters on them, whether or not you bought the "special" filters. I unscrewed the one that was on my sink, to replace it, because it sprung a leak, and found that it had a mesh filter in it. All the ones at the hardware store were the same. So theroretically, you could never drink sink water on Shabbos (Boreir) from long before this whole issue came to light. How come no one said anything before that?????? The copepods have never been visible to me, though some people have told me they saw it in Brooklyn water. I thought the halacha was that it only matters if the bugs are visible to the normal naked eye. Otherwise, if we could REALLY see what is crawling over our produce and ALL OTHER FOOD AND DRINK, we would be so disgusted, we could never eat anything EVER.
Sorry to disapoint you Oomis1105 - some fish have worms in them so it's no fish either.
Oomis, sorry to tell you, but there are worms also found in fish!! You can always have candy!!
Actually, back in the "olden days" there wasn't much variety. I think with the advent of air travel and refrigeration, we have so many varieties of fruits and vegetables available to us from all corners of the world, year round. So with more variety in our diets, the more problems we have. Also, dried herbs after a year, are not an issue, though fresh is tastier, it is good to know we have substitutions available.
oomis - the aerator on the sink at best filters out rocks and the like. Definitely not down to the 50 micron level, and some hold that you need a filter down to 5 microns.
Oomis, when I lived in Brooklyn, my rav said I did NOT have to filter the water. I did NOT see the bugs ever. I also work in water treatment and I don't believe its really a halachic issue. But, to each his (or her) own psak.
Also, we asked our Rabbi about filtering water from the tap where we live now. He said as long as there was no electronic parts, it was not a problem (i didn't ask about borer). Our water is undrinkable due to lead pipes in the street. Also, most water sources have filtration plants along their lines so even if you drink directly from the tap, the water is filtered.
I have seen them as well and use an EZ filter. I am very nearsighted ;)
Ames, because of the high quality of NYC water, they arent required to filter. A filtration system on each of the sources is really expensive. There is a water treatment plant being built for the Croton water supply, but Croton does not reach Brooklyn.
Mazal, you ARE a microscope if you are that nearsighted LOL.
Sorry to disapoint you Oomis1105 - some fish have worms in them so it's no fish either.
It just keeps getting better and better...
Is junk food ok???????
oomis: junk food is awesome! the end!
I have found the most interesting things when checking for bugs; for instance, a lovely green caterpillar in the broccoli, teeny bugs in strawberries that looked like the little greenish seeds on the outside of the strawberry, and most lovely of all, a slug in homegrown lettuce. I kept it for a pet in a herring jar covered with the net bag from onions to keep it from climbing out for about three weeks until unfortunately it dried out.
Perele, DRIED OUT???? EEEEEEWWWWWW!!!
~a~
Perele: ummmm ok! & welcome to the cr! join the fun! head to the new members thread to get a proper welcome from the cr crew!
jax, you do this ummmm just like someone I know, lol! But I'm 1000% sure you're not him.
~a~
anonymisss: ;)
ames, oy vey! that's so annoying.
~a~
ames: get a fly swatter! i was ganna say use you yarmalka as a fly swatter! ;)
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