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Common knowledge dictates you should avoid eating any mayonnaise-based salad that’s been sitting out in the sun too long or chow down at any restaurant sporting a “C” rating. However, there are just certain times in life when those fates just can’t be avoided (like when your aunt gets overly offended when you refuse to try her food or you have the munchies when it’s three o’ clock in the morning).
If you ever find yourself in situations like this, there’s a chance that you’ll have to deal with a fly landing in your food at some point, which most people probably view as a mild inconvenience. After all, there’s no reason to throw out a perfectly good dish just because a common pest landed on it for a few seconds— if A Christmas Story taught me anything, it’s that there are starving people in China.
However, a newly published study from researchers at Penn State might make you think twice before devouring that order of fly-tainted lo mein that sort of tastes like cigarettes for some reason. Munchies provided a succinct summary of the most revolting part of the investigation:
More than 350 kinds of bacteria were found on the bodies of houseflies, including E. coli and salmonella, and the blowfly also carried Helicobacter pylori, a type of bacteria that can cause stomach ulcers.
However, it appears those are far from the only health risks:
House flies are strongly suspected of transmitting at least 65 diseases to humans, including typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera, poliomyelitis, yaws, anthrax, tularemia, leprosy and tuberculosis. Flies regurgitate and excrete wherever they come to rest and thereby mechanically transmit disease organisms.
As someone who has admittedly eaten way too many pieces of food that flies have landed on, I’m pretty sure I’ve never contracted any of these diseases, so there’s a chance the risks might be slightly overblown. However, if you’re the type of person who uses hand sanitizer until your fingers start to bleed, you might want to think twice before you chow down.