A fly lands on your food

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What do you so?

I have to throw it out!

I heard that it can take only take a second for a fly to make eggs, and sometimes if you eat something after a fly has been on it it can make you really ill, so throwing it away is probably the most sensible thing to do.

I still like flies though. I just wish they didn't land in poop.

You are ok as they don't eat much.

Just wave my hand and the fly goes away as usual.

Throwing away food is a possibility if the food was exposed for longer time and I had more food.

Not sure throwing away a whole lunch for a fly is good.

Then again getting sick form the food is not a joy ride either.

Not sure a single fly landing on for few seconds would actually do much.

Considering what the fly may have done or previously landed on, I would not eat the part it touched and a little around it, but if it was only there for a few seconds, I doubt it has immediately contaminated the entire thing. If it has been there longer or has landed on it more than once, though, I’d probably throw it away. Entirely possible it would still be fine, but I’m not confident enough to risk it after that.

I definitely throw the food away. Flies carry dirty things. The idea of eating something that a fly has touched is revolting. You could catch some disease though in most cases you probably wouldn't.

I stopped buying "naked" meat etc because the people working there don't seem to care if there are flies around in the shop/store. No wonder there are complaints that there are maggots on/in the food they sell.

It depends on what country I am in. In the US, or UK, or somewhere like that, I would toss it. In a third or fourth world country, I would probably eat it. I know that the sanitary conditions would be much more severe in a poor country, but it would be very difficult to find any food at all that has not been touched by a fly and I would also not want the local people to think that I am stuck up.

I'd ignore it and eat the food. Food should never be wasted.

I trap it, remove both wings and multiple legs meanwhile forgetting all about my food.

I throw the food away...or, at least, anything anywhere near where the fly landed.

I wish I was not limited to one response, however. I went with "throw the food away" because I don't do a full-fledged freak out, rather I just get very agitated...and the agitation begins long before the fly lands and even if the fly doesn't land.

I eat it anyway, but if I'm in a restaurant I worry when I even see a fly because how do I know there aren't a million of them buzzing around in something like out of "Kitchen Nightmares"?

Come on people! Have you ever worked on a farm or a market garden? Thousands of flies have landed on them! Do flies think "I can't eat that. A human has touched it!"?

Look. Even if a fly has layed its eggs innit, the eggs will not harm humans. Fly grubs can be eaten.
The issues are what the fly has trodden on before and most flies that land on your food have probably never landed on anything bad.
Is a bit like saying "Rats carry diseases" without saying "Humans carry diseases" and "Cuttlery carries diseases"...

Just wash or prepare to minimize the chance of catching anything, and if a fly lands on it, just waft it off and eat it. You are far more likely to become ill from water borne sources of bacteria from your tap or whatever else you drink then a fly, and I am not saying a fly can't cause you to become ill. I am saying that the chance is smaller than other sources.
Did you know that breakfast cerials and other grains bought in health shops contain mouse and/or rat and other droppings or insect droppings and that they grade the food as fit for human consumption by counting what they find and if it is below a certain number of droppings it is passed and if it is not it is animal food? And that there is virtually no such thing as no animal or insect droppings in such products?

I do not want to put any of you off eating food, but lets face reality here, that despite great efforts on behalf of farmers or other food growers and the middle men that store and process and pack the foods, the reality is that you are eating animal and insect poo in with your food so a fly walking on it is hardly anything in comparisson to the rest of what goes on!
Not cooking or heating food long enough (Especially meats) is far more of a health risk than a fly walking on it to be honest.

Yes there is risk, but every single item of food you eat there is risk... But not eating and you are at more risk than eating as your body does not get the good stuff it needs to digest to keep your immune system healthy so it can cope with any nasty stuff it may come across.

Replacing the food takes time, cash and energy

And there is zero guarantee that, after you have cooked or purchased a second meal, another fly or something won't land in it

Cost benefit analysis

Risk versus reward

However, there are many methods of meal contamination

Flies are just one of them

Bacteria is invisible

There's a Fly in the Soup - Sesame Street