Moth larva found in high school cafeteria fruit cup

WALLINGFORD, Conn. — Lab results conducted by a state entomologist revealed that the worm found in a fruit cup served for lunch last week at Sheehan High School was most likely a moth larva. Test results showed the larva appeared to have been cooked in the process of canning the fruit, school officials said.

The bug was discovered last week by a student. Parent Kimberly Davidson posted several cell phone pictures taken by students on Facebook that seemed to depict three different insects found in food served at Sheehan. The pictures were initially sent via Snapchat and included captions such as “just saying” with the “J” formed by a curled larva.

School officials said Tuesday they believed the incident was isolated.

The test was conducted by Dr. Gale E. Ridge, entomologist for the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, who concluded the organism found in the Sysco Corp. processed fruit cup was most likely the larva of a pyralid moth. Ridge concluded the moth showed signs of having been cooked.

“The larva shows “morphology” consistent with having been cooked,” Ridge stated in her report.

Wallingford schools food services director Sharlene Wong said the results indicate that “the foreign matter was in the can of pears when it was processed at the packaging plant.”

Wong said the school system continues to work toward resolving the incident.

“This is the first time in my 22 years in the district and over 9.5 million meals served in Wallingford that foreign matter was discovered and we are working through proper channels to resolve the issue,” Wong said.

Superintendent Salvatore Menzo said the incident was not caused by sanitation issues in the school’s cafeteria.

“It wasn’t a factor of cleanliness in the cafeteria,” Menzo said. “It was in the can and as a result it was served inadvertently.”

Northeast Marketing Co., a Massachusetts company, is responsible for packaging the fruit where the larva was found. A March 20 letter addressed to Wong from the company’s Vice President Brian Durno apologized for the incident.

“On behalf of our company, I would like to apologize for the unfortunate worm incident at your school,” Durno said.

He assured Wong the company would be conducting a full investigation into the incident at its factory with the Quality Control Officer there. He said finding organisms in processed food is not unprecedented.