pantry pests in Pinto Beans

[PyratePrincess]

In doing some rotating and inspecting of my "pantry" I discovered some winged critters in my 5 gallon bucket of pintos.

The beans are in Mylar (which I intend to open, inspect and re-seal..but they were treated with dry ice prior to storage so I'm puzzled.

1. Thought the dry ice killed off the little scum bags. Been considering switching to food grade DE instead. opinions?

2. Aside from cleaning the bucket, etc...I'm thinking there's a way of salvaging these beans so they don't get tossed. Don't want to rinse (mold potential)...just sift through?? Sift and freeze in batches?

3. Is this common?

Glad I'm checking. I'd hate to have discovered after they consumed all the product

[luvmyvet]

We haven't used any mylar bags for our beans so I can't speak to that part, but froze them all in the freezer for a couple of days, then mixed in DE as we filled the buckets.

I just went through all of our goods after neglecting for two yrs , checked for bugs, etc and all of them were just fine, whew..

I would suggest going ahead and sorting through them, then freezing and repacking, and adding DE.

I have heard excellent reviews on the mylar so am curious as to what may have caused the problem.
LMV

[PyratePrincess]

Not finding much helpful on the net either. Most articles say to throw out the product...just seems like there should be another way

[luvmyvet]

"they" have to err on the safe side I assume, but unless the beans are nastified I would salvage all I could...

hoping someone with real knowledge steps into help ya, lol

there is an official number of bug parts per million in food that TPTB think is acceptable for us consumers, lol, so why not see what you can save?

after realizing that I had neglected to use some of the buckets of pinto beans, which tend to go hard more often than buggy, we canned up our first batch of pintos in quart jars. am new to canning so can't tell ya how proud I am over those 6 jars of canned beans, lol

One concern is that it takes a lot of water and fuel to cook up beans unless using a pressure cooker and would rather have some ready to eat ahead of time in case of power outages, etc, not to mention one less thing to worry about getting funky.
LMV

[PyratePrincess]

I'm hearing crickets besides Luv's answer...

With all our experienced folks here...words of wisdom anyone?

[Belle]

I can tell you how to get the bugs out, but you'd have to cook them right away (or can them). One bit of advice, do not open them in your house again. They will get out and infest everything in your house and I'm not joking. I lost over 500 lbs of grain foods from doing that - flour, meal, crackers, noodles, all sorts of things.

To get the bugs out, pour them into a colander outside, shake it well to get out as many bugs as possible, then dump the beans into a pot of water. Do this for all of them. Then start scooping out any bugs that float to the top of the water. Keep doing that until you no longer find bugs. Now soak them overnight and scoop any additional bugs that float up. Now drain the beans, rinse them, and either can or cook them. If you cook them, you don't have to eat them all right now, you can freeze them in meal-size portions.

I know that sounds gross, but, if it comes down to getting the bugs out of something or going hungry, I'm getting the bugs out. Might as well learn how now.

As far as preventing bugs in foods, the only sure-fire way I know of is to store them in the freezer all the time.

I know I didn't offer much hope, but that's all I've got.