A vast haul of dried caterpillars seized at Gatwick is "among the largest finds of its kind at the airport," reports a UK Border Force spokesperson. Hey, at least you know what won't be in next month's Tesco's Everyday Value Spaghetti Bolognese. [BBC]

  • TheOtherBen

    Ooh, look at the funny food that people eat. Why are people trying to bring familiar foodstuffs from their homelands into the UK when they could just eat normal stuff like jellied eels, fried Mars bars or Marmite. Funny foreigners.

    • Jerril

       You aren’t allowed to smuggle ANY foodstuffs into the UK. Or into most other countries. Food imports are strictly controlled due to the hazards of introduced wildlife or agricultural diseases. The last Foot and Mouth outbreak started with a smuggled sandwich.

      • TheOtherBen

        Right. This is “dog bites man” news being treated like “man bites dog” news.

      • Glippiglop

        You can take almost any foodstuff into the UK, although you do have to declare things like meat, fresh veg, seafood etc (as you might normally expect).  I’ve always found UK customs to be surprisingly lenient – had to declare food and alcohol from Barbados last month, but still went through without paying anything or having my luggage inspected.

        • Antinous / Moderator

          If you bring a pet in, don’t you have to put it in quarantine for six months?  I recall some draconian ZOMG Rabies! restrictions.

          • Glippiglop

            Depends on the country of origin and the type of pet.  There’s a lot of prep to do before the pet even boards the plane, but if you get all the paperwork right then there’s probably no drama.  I know someone that brought in a dog from Canada without any trouble.  I could imagine that any missing paperwork would be a big problem though.

          • http://www.facebook.com/DemiDeciDan Daniel Sobol

             My friend Sarah has family in Kelso and she’s had to put at least two dogs in six months of quarantine.

    • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

      You leave Marmite out of this.

  • http://www.facebook.com/dpease Dave Pease

    Oh, I don’t know… plenty more caterpillars in the world to make into sauce, Rob.

  • PhosPhorious

    A quick glance at the headline had me thinking it said “207 lb caterpillar seized. . . ”

    When i stopped screaming, I realized that it was 207lbs of caterpillars, not a single caterpillar.

    Whew.

    • saint_al

       I’d pay to saddle up and ride a 207 lb. caterpillar. /imagining a very slow crawl along a woodland trail

    • wysinwyg

      But imagine the butterfly…

      Aww, who am I kidding.  We all know it would turn out to be Mothra.

  • http://www.facebook.com/postelwait Cameron Postelwait

    someone talking trash on Tesco?

  • Nash Rambler

    Hmmmm, I don’t see a restriction about caterpillars specifically, and the “personal consumption” section does give you a lot of leeway. . .ah!  Any food import of a certain size must “be accompanied by animal health and public health certification.”  Yeah, 207lbs of caterpillars probably fall under needing a certification.  At the end of the day, I’m wondering what the heck they taste like?

    http://www.food.gov.uk/business-industry/imports/want_to_import/animalimports/#.UTDvZqLviSo

  • WaylonWillie

    Are these caterpillars, or “caterpillar fungus”? The latter are a popular and expensive Chinese medicine, so a mass quantity of them would be worth $$$.

    • Robert Cruickshank

       That’s a whole other can of worms.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

    And here I thought the Oompa Loompas had given up eating mashed-up green caterpillars since Willy Wonka gave them all the cocoa beans they wanted.

  • Brainspore

    The very idea gives me butterflies in my stomach.

  • euansmith

    The True Black Meat.