Is it safe to eat food that a fly has landed on? Answered by a doctor

Is it safe to eat food that a fly has landed on? Answered by a doctor

These insects can reward you with serious diseases.

General practitioner, ex-director of the Hillel Foundation in Saratov

Everyone at least once in his life has had to irritatedly wave away an annoying fly, persistently hovering near the food. Or make tea again, because the fly has already landed in the cup. For hygiene reasons, many people are afraid to eat a dish where an insect has been, but are they right in their fears?

What flies do when they land on food

The digestive system of insects is simpler than that of humans. They have no teeth and cannot bite off a piece of food. However, their “saliva” contains enzymes that allow insects to eat. In effect, they spit on the food, and that sounds pretty unpleasant already. This process begins a few minutes or seconds after the fly lands.

What flies carry

Musca domestica, commonly known as the house fly, is one of the most common annoying insects in the world. These are not the butterflies of fairy tales, and these insects flutter not through flowers, but often through garbage and feces.

Should I throw away the food?

In most cases, if you find a fly on a dish doesn’t mean it should be thrown out immediately. No one doubts that insects can transfer bacteria, viruses and parasites from waste to food, but one touch of them is unlikely to cause health damage.

The risk increases if a fly lands on food out of your sight, stays there for a while and leaves a trail. The longer they sit on the dish, the more likely it is that the pathogens they leave behind will grow and multiply there. In such cases, you can become infected with salmonella or E. coli.

Follow safety rules at picnics or at home if flies are common in your neighborhood:

• cover food when cooking and/or serving outdoors;
• screen windows and doorways with netting to reduce the chance of them entering your home;
• keep garbage cans clean and remove waste from the home in a timely manner;
• Use fly control products such as duct tape, sprays and good old-fashioned fly swatter.