NTUC FairPrice Removed Chilli Flakes from Shelves After Insect Larvae Found in a Bottle

In many countries, ingesting insects is a common sight.

Singapore, however, is not one of them. Yet. You can watch this video to learn more about Singapore’s impending move to approve insects for consumption:

But in those countries whereby eating insects are as common as eating chicken, I’m certain they’d like their insects cooked properly as well—definitely not popping up by surprise from the contents of a condiment bottle like a low-budget horror movie.

Recently, a Stomper and his family became the protagonists of said horror movie when he opened a bottle of Morrisons Brand chilli flakes and found live white insect larvae inside.

This prompted NTUC FairPrice, the place he bought the item from, to remove the product from shelves and issue an apology to the family. 

Here’s what happened.

Stomper: Worms Wiggling on the Plates

A Stomper known as Alan and his family were making pizzas, and poured chilli flakes onto the homemade meal. 

What they did not expect, however, was that they were opening a can of worms. Quite literally

They were greeted with the sight of what he dubbed “worms” wiggling on the plates, and Alan added that his family had even ingested the pizzas without noticing them.

He shared a video of him pouring the rest of the flakes onto a plate, and these worms could be seen crawling amongst them. 

“It was so horrifying and grotesque,” he expressed. 

The “worms”, apparently, were probably maggots or larvae that hatched from insect eggs inside the bottle, if that makes it any better. 

FairPrice Apologises & Removes Product

FairPrice has removed the product from shelves following the post, as a precautionary measure. 

Additionally, they offered an apology to the family for the “unpleasant experience” and offered them a full refund of a whopping S$3.18, which hopefully will make up for the horrors of nearly eating worms. 

Their spokesperson reassured the public that “FairPrice takes product quality very seriously” and that they were conducting an investigation into the matter.

It also reminded customers to contact them at their customer service hotline or website if they had enquiries or feedback.

Are Bugs Common in our food?

Finding bugs in food is not an isolated incident- earlier this year, a woman found a parasitic worm in her rice bowl from Don Don Donki, and another man found the legs and thorax of a dead bug on his cream cracker.

A Don Don Donki spokesperson claimed that parasites were a common find in raw seafood; however, Singapore does not condone pest contaminants in food. 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States, though, says that finding contaminants in food products like insect fragments or excrement is inevitable, due to the difficulty in completely preventing natural defects in food production and growth. 

In Singapore, a limit has been set on the level of contaminants in food

Apparently, items like cup noodles and fruit cordial have a set limit of up to 10,000 colony-forming units of Enterobacteriaceae to ensure that food products are safe for human consumption.

Keeping to the set levels, food is almost entirely safe for human consumption. So, even if you unwittingly ingest these unwanted parasites, it might cause less stress on your stomach than consuming a whole McSpicy.