You probably have!: Have you ever eaten fruit fly eggs?

“In a month, a single fruit fly produces several hundred thousand offspring,” says Hafen. “A female at high temperatures can lay up to 1,000 eggs a day.” Offspring capable of mating grow in ten days. According to the expert, a fertilized female that you bring home from the supermarket with a berry is enough for a strong spread in the kitchen. Or you can take home fruits that already contain a large number of eggs.

“Females usually lay their eggs in the flesh of ripe or already rotting fruit,” says Hafen. They are white, long and up to half a millimeter in size. Because they are below the surface, you cannot see them or wash them. Hafen says we unknowingly eat fruit eggs more often than we think. However, this is not a health risk. “Fruit flies don’t transmit disease,” says Hafen. They only feed on fruit. They do not need an intermediate host animal to collect pathogens.

Compared to other insects, we know an above-average amount about Drosophila melanogaster, called fruit flies in technical jargon, Hafen says. This is because they reproduce very quickly and have a maximum life cycle of two months. “These two factors help investigate aging processes, disease development, and genetic changes.” Findings from this are central to research on diseases such as cancer or diabetes. Fruit fly researchers have already received five Nobel Prizes in Medicine. Hafen: “Fruit flies are excellent model organisms.”