South Korea: Worms in strawberries? Not in domestically produced ones

Published Jan 16, 2024

Tridge summary

A video warning about bugs in strawberries is circulating on social media, but experts believe that domestically produced strawberries are not at risk of fruit fly infestation. The strawberry harvest period and fruit fly activity period do not overlap in Korea, and research has shown that no fruit flies were detected in Korean strawberries exported to Australia over the past five years. An expert from the Rural Development Administration recommends washing strawberries with running water only to remove dust and avoid soaking them for too long, which may affect their texture and taste.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

As strawberries are in season, a video is going around telling people to be careful of bugs when eating strawberries. If you search ‘How to wash strawberries’ on SNS (social networking service), videos such as ‘Why you need to wash strawberries in salt water’ and ‘The shocking reality of strawberries’ appear. This video shows fruit flies emerging from strawberries soaked in salt water. However, the videos were taken overseas in the past, and experts believe that fruit flies cannot live on domestically produced strawberries. According to the Rural Development Administration, the strawberry harvest period and fruit fly activity period do not overlap. Strawberries are usually harvested from November to early May, while fruit flies are mainly active from May to fall. Therefore, the strawberry cultivation period and the fruit fly activity period cannot overlap. Drosophila melanogaster, which is commonly distributed in the mountains of Korea, is known to be a pest that is active in warm ...

Source: Nongmin