larva worms in papaya

[kimo wires]

Just found Larva worms in a papaya bought at farmers market.(in seeds)
Are these dangerous? I mean if someone ate the fruit that had these in it?

[kimo wires]

I can't find any info online about this. If there is any danger of ingesting the flesh of the fruit that has Larvae in the seed pocket.

Trying to find out quickly because I believe my wife ate some.

[kimo wires]

After lots of searches... I believe the papayas are infested with fruit fly larvae. And the posts i've found say they're not dangerous.

Never seen this before and we eat a lot of papayas.

[csgray]

As long as she didn't ingest the actual larva she should be fine.

There are a lot of insects that lay eggs in the core of very immature fruits, that then mature into larva that eventually find their way out to make their transformation into the next stage of development. Most restaurants, food packers, and grocery stores that sell prepackaged papaya chunks at most just make sure they aren't selling any bits with larva, they just cut away the bad parts and sell the rest, so this probably isn't the first time either of you will have eaten papaya that had had larva in the seeds.

Carol

[kimo wires]

thank you, She didn't eat the worm. That's a relief.

[csgray]

I found half a worm in a cherry tomato I had bitten into when I was a kid, I didn't eat cherry tomatoes at all for years, and then for along time never without carefully checking them first for worm holes! So I understand the ick factor.

Carol

[Carey]

We usually refrigerate ripened fruit, which usually seems to reduce/eliminate the chance of flies stinging the fruit, & at least really slow down the buggers development...many recommend soaking potentially stung fruit in salt water to draw the larvae out of the fruit...(we try to pick our papayas when they are just blushing yellow/orange, set them on the counter for a day or two in a flyproof mesh bowl, then pop them into the frig overnight when ripe) Tangerines are another thing that can get stung & buggy....

Not really sure that the larvae are harmful to eat (USDA does have a limit of acceptable Fruit fly eggs & parts in food...but that is something I usually like to NOT think about!), and the larvae do really speed up the fruit spoilage & the stung area is a site for other things to get in...

[MarkP]

There is a continuous spectrum of how good or bad consuming different kinds of flesh is for you. Rat lungworm is on one end of the spectrum. Various kinds of fish and poultry are on the other end. It also depends on how much you eat. If you are truly starving, a cheeseburger might be the best thing for you, but for everyday consumption it could be harmful at least compared to leaner meat. Ask a vegan and they will tell you eating meat is harmful and I have to assume they would say the same about that worm, but on the face of it I see no reason why fruitfly larvae would be any worse than McNuggets and they are probably a lot better unless you deep fry them. Gotta admit I loves me some deep fried maggots.

[coppercoin40]

Everything on the topic of internal parasites fortunatly recommend eating lots of papaya to rid yourself of internal parasites! I guess I would be worried if I ingested any of the larvae still in the egg stage, maybe stomach acid would kill them anyway...

[MarkP]

I think anything you find inside the fruit has only a fruit based life cycle and as such is merely protein.