Miami woman Nikki Murci (@nikki_murci) has gone viral after discovering an unwelcome surprise in her Trader Joe’s rice. “I’m actually losing my mind right now,” she said, beginning the video that has amassed 2.6 million views.
“I buy these rice things. They’re from Trader Joe’s and you put them in the microwave,” she continued, showing people her microwaveable rice. “And I just saw—you see that little moving thing?” she asked, zooming the camera in to show a brown wriggling critter. “I don’t know what, I don’t know what to do.”
In the comments, many users saw the funny side. “You better trade that back to Joe,” one joked. “That’s who fixes your phone when it gets wet,” another quipped.
Meanwhile, a third commenter identified the critter as a rice weevil, and explained: “Rice weevils, are harmless little beetles that love rice grains. Usually, if you wash your rice first, they drown and rise to the top. When you cook your rice properly, it kills all of them & any larvae they may have laid inside of the individual rice grains. However, ingesting them isn’t harmful at all. Found some in my big bag of rice the other day. Always wash your rice.”
Elsewhere, commenters urged Murci to cook her own rice instead of microwaving it. “Rice cooker is the way to go sister!” one said. “Bugs in rice, ew! Microwaved plastic, ew!” While another echoed: “Girl. Just get a rice cooker. Soooooo much better. No microplastics.”
In a follow-up video, Murci took aim at commenters who asked why she didn’t use a rice cooker. “So, yeah, I could just make, like, regular rice in a rice cooker, but I didn’t want to do dishes,” she said. “This is ready in three minutes, so I don’t have to wait 20 minutes to have rice. And also, I expect there not to be bugs in my rice. That’s just an expectation for me.”
Murci didn’t immediately respond to The Mary Sue’s request for comment via TikTok comment.
@nikki_murci Devastating to say the least
♬ original sound – Nikki Murci
Does Trader Joe’s have a bug problem?
This isn’t the first time Trader Joe’s has had bug issues. Back in 2023, the company recalled its Trader Joe’s Unexpected Broccoli Cheddar Soup, “because the product has insects in the frozen broccoli florets,” according to the Food and Drug Administration report.
Moreover, on the r/traderjoes subreddit, one customer claimed that they accidentally ate “a ton of bugs” that were in the brand’s Organic Pitted Medjool Dates, while another said they sent a hash brown patty back because they believed there was a dead fly in the food item.
In the comments of this second Reddit post, countless customers shared their own experiences. One said that they found “two giant earwigs in two completely different products months apart from each other,” while another claimed to find “live bugs” in a pack of Trader Joe’s hamburger rolls they purchased. A third said they found a “worm thing” in the Eggwich Breadless Breakfast Sandwich, while a fourth claimed they also found worms in Trader Joe’s refrigerated Chicken Tikka Masala.
Trader Joe’s didn’t immediately respond to The Mary Sue’s request for comment via contact form.
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