According to an entomologist, Ron Harrison eating your food after a fly lands on it might be very dangerous to your health.
Fly lands on food
Flies are pests, literally. The big ones buzz around noisily and disturb everyone.
Big and small, flies are bad news, health-wise. And that is why, ideally, when a fly lands on your food, the best bet is to throw the food away, especially if it is to be eaten cold.
‘Why?’ You may ask. Here are the reasons:
• Experts say when a fly lands on your food, it doesn’t just dance on it, it vomits into it. “This is because a fly can’t chew, so instead, they eject digestive enzymes onto the food before eating it up again,” says an entomologist, Ron Harrison.
• On average, a fly carries more than 200 forms of harmful bacteria, owing to their love of landing on items such as rotting food and faecal matter.
• Flies have thousands of tiny hairs on the arms and legs which allow dangerous germs to transfer to your food if one lands on it.
• “They only need to touch your food for a second for their legs or the tiny hairs all over their bodies to transfer germs from all those nasty things they eat onto what you are eating,” Harrison says.
• Flies can transfer serious, contagious diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid.
• That is why it is probably best if you avoid eating things that a fly lands on, Harrison says.
The bottom line: Don’t expose your food to flies.
-culled from Punch.