We found bugs in the cereal and seeds. Let''s panic!

This isn’t a misleading “clickbait” headline. Over the past month, we’ve actually found some “pests” in certain food products we sell. When this happens, we immediately take all necessary steps to ensure we don’t sell “worm-infested goods”: we remove such items from sale, notify our suppliers, and inform any customers who may have recently purchased these foods.

Today, I’d like to discuss why it’s actually good and logical for such an incident to happen from time to time.

In recent decades, we’ve become accustomed to industrially produced, processed, and packaged food. If you find a snail in a bag of lettuce or a worm in an apple, it becomes a full-blown scandal—and a worst-case nightmare for retailers and producers. It seems as though some people can’t wait to get their hands on it (both literally and figuratively), since we all quickly latch onto such news and social media posts, causing them to go viral.

So where does all this fervor, fear, and commotion come from over a moth larva that’s harmless?

If you’re a regular at Rifuzl, you know we strive to source as many items as possible locally—primarily because this way, they reach our store without plastic packaging. But also because we support the local economy and sell locally grown food, which we believe is the best and most nutritious for us, and, after all, it’s the most logical and natural way to eat.

We buy products directly from farmers, so they don’t go through processing, packaging, or long-term storage. With such a process, there’s a chance that the eggs—from which larvae (commonly known as worms) develop in the grain months later—already come from the field. Now let’s look at what this means in practice, since it implicitly contains a lot of information.

If the eggs are already in the field, it means that this field was suitable for their parents and that they also “feasted” there. If they were happily munching on the crop, it means that this field was not sprayed with pesticides. The farmer who owns the field took a risk (compared to a neighbor who did spray) that insects would eat part of his crop—insects that, on the other hand, are also part of the ecosystem and responsible for ensuring that nature produces anything at all (through pollination and a hundred other tasks nature has assigned them—they also serve as food for birds and other animals further down the food chain). The presence of so-called pests is therefore a better indicator than any certificate that this food was grown in a more natural way than that which looks perfect but tastes bland—and which no animal or disease will touch.

In short, foods that no one but humans wants are highly suspicious. If you want to eat truly natural food, you shouldn’t be afraid of a bug or its offspring—you should actually expect them!

I, too, don’t like sharing my plate with bugs

Of course, I also don’t like eating food that some larvae have already been munching on before me. And when I really think about it, that’s perfectly logical and natural—why would I eat food from which larvae have already consumed the best nutrients and left behind only their waste?

That’s why at Rifuzl, together with our suppliers, we make sure the food is flawless and free of “bugs.” Admittedly, this is more difficult for a packaging-free store than for regular stores, but I can reassure you on a few points that we don’t unnecessarily let larvae eat our stock:

1. We immediately transfer potentially perishable foods upon delivery into airtight, HACCP-certified containers designed for food storage. This ensures that even if pests enter our warehouse with a particular food item, they will only destroy that specific item and will not be able to spread further.
2. We keep the warehouse (especially in the summer) at as low a temperature as possible—this prevents development and reproduction processes from starting or at least slows them down.
3. We do not keep large quantities of food in the dispensers and containers in the store, so that they are not exposed to unwanted “predators,” sunlight, or higher temperatures. Instead, we refill them frequently—some even several times a day.
4. We regularly inspect our warehouse and inventory, and ensure a high level of hygiene in dispensers, scoops, food storage containers, and the entire store.
5. If an “insect infestation” occurs, we immediately remove the affected food from sale, isolate it, and notify the supplier.
6. On our website, you’ll find a link to a feedback form so you can always let us know—anonymously or not—if something isn’t right with the products you’ve purchased, and we can take appropriate action right away.

After all, if the fault was on our end, bring back the food containing insects, and we’ll either refund your purchase, replace the item, or issue a credit (as we’ve already done and demonstrated with the popcorn).

We’ll honor a return based on the receipt (which shows the purchase date) and only if we confirm the presence of larvae in our warehouse. On warm days and if stored improperly at home (outside of airtight jars or other food storage containers), it is very possible that larvae could get into the food and multiply later on, not at Rifuzl. In this case, we cannot accept the complaint, as it could be a case of misuse.

Therefore, for shopping and, above all, for storing food at home, we highly recommend glass jars with screw-on or snap-on lids (both of which you can also purchase from us), which prevent pests from spreading in your food. If you buy items in paper or woven bags, we definitely recommend transferring them at home into containers or jars that you can seal airtight. Here’s another tip: if you freeze dry foods for a week, the freezing process will destroy any larvae that may be present. ?

But we won’t throw the bag away

The story isn’t over yet. What happens to the food that’s been returned? Because we work directly with farms and producers, this part of the story is also much better than in conventional production and retail.

Usually, such food has to be destroyed—incinerated or something similar. Our farmers, however, take them back and use them as feed for their animals—cows, chickens, and pigs, for example. This way, this food—which is perfectly fine—doesn’t go to waste. Zero waste in the truest sense of the word.

So, together we’ve made our way through yet another story from Rifuzl’s background. Now you know that you won’t die from the little worms in the oats, seeds, or apples—but you’ll know that they really are as good and high-quality as we claim. If anything, the grains, fruits, and vegetables that even moth larvae won’t touch are more likely to harm you.

If you liked this post, we at Rifuzl would be happy if you shared it on Facebook so that others can learn about shopping for high-quality, local food without creating waste.