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Family pasta night is so popular because it’s one of the most economical meals you can make. Buying a box of pasta and jar of pasta sauce will cost you less than $10 at the grocery store, and produce enough servings for your whole household for a couple days. Feeding your kids pasta with sauce is also one of those parenting survival tips, especially in the early years. And you don’t have to be a kid to appreciate the simplicity of this meal. Asides from the obvious high levels of sugars, sodium and carbohydrates, it is still a home-cooked dinner staple.
But before you add “jarred marinara sauce” to your grocery list for the week, just know that it can contain a small amount of live bugs–and still be totally approved by the FDA!
Fly Eggs And Maggots
Yes, you read that right, according to the standards put forth by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, jarred and canned pasta sauce and other tomato products can contain maggots or fly eggs to a certain degree and still be totally acceptable for sale and consumption in grocery chains across the U.S.
Their guidelines state that it's okay to have fly eggs and/or maggots in tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, tomato juice, tomato puree, pasta sauce and pizza sauce.
In fact, it's acceptable and even normal to find 30 or more fly eggs per 100 grams of the stuff, or one maggot per 100 grams! Did you just lose your appetite? Same same.
