I’ve been on a serious cereal kick lately. I love mixing different cereals, and one of my favorites is Coca Crispy Brown Rice.

This brings me back to my Cocoa Pebbles days (even though I was always more of Cap’n Crunch gal). It even leaves a bowl full of chocolate milk behind!

From the moment I broke into this box of cereal, though, it also brought back a very bad memory. Look closely:

Closer…

Notice any resemblance?

I must admit that my first bowl of this cereal wasn’t exactly the tastiest…but only because of the disturbing mental image it resulted in. However, I’m not one to waste food – especially not tasty food – so I overcame the obstacle. I’m happy to say that I no longer have trouble eating a bowl full of cereal that resembles the Indian Meal Moth larvae found in my Luna Bar.

Yes – you read that right. Indian Meal Moth larvae. Yuck!

While we’re on the topic, I feel the need to address how this situation unfolded – especially since many of you were concerned and anxious that I contact the company. I did contact them, and it was about 10 days later that I received the following response.

Thanks for taking the time to contact us about your unpleasant experience with finding bugs in your LUNA Bar. I am so sorry this has happened to you and apologize for your discomfort. There is a simple explanation for what has occurred with your Bar. What you discovered is an Indian Meal Moth. I assure you that while Indian Meal Moths are definitely unappetizing, they are not harmful to ingest, and do not become parasites.

The moths are pantry pests attracted to grains, dried fruits, chocolate, nuts, cardboard, birdseed and other preservative-free foods. The moths seek out food sources and can penetrate packaging when they are ready to lay their eggs. This can occur at any point in the distribution chain, but is most prevalent in retail locations.

We are confident the Indian Meal Moths do not originate in our warehouse or bakeries. Several of our products are baked at a high enough temperature to eliminate pests. Our warehouse and bakeries are kept scrupulously clean and equipped with pheromone traps to monitor any activity. Traps are checked frequently.

I recommend disposing of this as well as any other CLIF Bar products you purchased in garbage that is located outside of your house or place of business.

I hope that this information will help to ease your concern. I would like to send you a box of fresh-from-the-bakery LUNA bars (or a box of another product we make) as our sincere apology for this incident. Please reply to this email with your mailing address if you are interested.

Thank you again for taking the time to alert us to this incident.

We hope you will give our products another chance.

I have a couple of thoughts on this. I was glad to have received a response somewhat shortly after contacting the company, and I appreciated the apology that was extended. It was also a relief to find out exactly what I found in my Luna Bar and learn that it was not harmful.

However. I definitely cannot say that I’m entirely satisfied with this response, and here’s why.

First of all, I was sort of surprised that the company knew exactly what this bug in my Luna Bar was. That means that they either a) spent time researching it or b) have had experience with these bugs in the past. Am I missing any other alternatives…?

Secondly, I was also surprised that the company so adamantly believes that the problem did not originate in their factory. In fact, my response to this email included a comment about how I believe there is the possibility of at least some sort of issue at the factory – whether it be where the bars are made or in the packaging department. Stuff like that can’t just permeate through packing that is created for the sole purpose of protecting the food.

Bugs get in food…I get that. In fact, when I find bugs in salad/fresh produce, it doesn’t really both me. That’s natural. But this? This wasn’t. According to this email, Indian Meal Moths/Worms are supposedly very prevalent. But if that’s the case, why have I never heard of them, nor any other incident involving them in packaged foods?

So, in short, I was and still am not satisfied with the response. I’m not looking for attention or a lifetime of free Luna Bars (I turned down the free box, in case you were wondering), but I guess I was looking for a bit more conviction from the company and some sort of indication that they would at least look into the problem further.

I’m sad to say that I no longer feel comfortable buying Luna Bars. If you ask any of my family members or friends they’ll tell you how often I used to buy Luna Bars – I loved them! But, as you can imagine, the experience isn’t one that I’m going to be able to forget any time soon…

…especially not while I’m eating my new favorite cereal. Ahem.

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen that there was an unwelcome guest in my Luna Bar the other day.

Unfortunately I came across this after already eating 3/4 of the bar.

fjkshdf;uosh;guoghc;uorghiuguigugpsfhousglifu.

At first I decided not to post about this, but I can’t stop wondering. Does anyone knows what kind of bug/larva that is? And what’s up with the web stuff??

(I can’t believe I just had to type the word “larva” in relation to something I ate. GAG :()

So…any idea?

Have you ever found a creepy crawler in your food??