I cooked some bacon medallions yesterday, it was in date, didn't smell, and I had some of it, putting the rest in the fridge – by all accounts it was fine. This morning however, when I opened the container, at the very bottom on the last piece was a cluster of little, narrow yellow things.
As best as I can tell, they weren't moving. Weren't particularly furry, and neither changed shape when I mashed them between my fingers, nor melted when I put them in the microwave, so I'm reluctant to believe it's just oddly shaped fat.
Has anybody got any idea what they are? I don't want to throw away perfectly good bacon but I also don't want food poisoning.
Best Answer
This looks like your meat was discovered by a female fly (probably something like a blow fly) who thought that the protein-rich “carrion” would make a great spot for her offspring and subsequently laid a cluster of eggs. During summer, it may take as little as a few minutes for an uncovered piece of meat to become a fly nursery. Especially in the height of summer, the females will sometimes be so desperate that they will lay their eggs on about everything that is available.
The eggs are just one to two mm long, opaque white to pale yellow and are laid in clusters, often dozens in one spot. If left at room temperature, they can hatch in as little as eight hours, giving you a wriggling pile of maggots. I am not sure whether the eggs can still hatch after their stint in the fridge, but just leaving the “unknown objects” out for a while could confirm my answer.
As far as food safety is concerned, I recommend you discard the rest of your meat. Flies do carry pathogens and transfer them to food by simply walking over it. (Remember, they consider dog poop, the decaying squirrel in the forest and your dish equally attractive and visit them indiscriminately.) And that’s not even including the “yuck factor”.