Orange County schools remove rice from cafeteria after child finds mealworm in lunch

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County school leaders have made sure a certain type of rice has been removed at every school since a child found a mealworm in his school lunch.

District officials said they are taking every preventative measure possible after finding more worms in an uncooked shipment of the rice.

But parents said they’re still worried because it’s not clear how the worms got in the rice.

Mealworms are typically fed to animals like fish and birds, and are attracted to grains, like the rice they were found in by a Killarney Elementary School student.

Parent Shauna Jackson decided she would be sending her child to school with a packed lunch from now on after learning about the worms.

“Because then it makes you wonder what else is in there,” Jackson said.

She and other parents received an email from the school principal telling them a child found a cooked mealworm in his rice Tuesday and that more live worms were found in uncooked rice.

“I feel like somebody should have seen it when they first opened the container. And if not, then somebody should have seen it when it was being cooked,” said Jackson. “I mean, it took a child to bring it up.”

The district cited the Department of Agriculture in ensuring parents that mealworms are not harmful or toxic if ingested.

WFTV