A friend of mine is a contractor in Texas. This summer, he was renovating a house while the owners were away. The house had a chest freezer in the basement, filled mostly with frozen meat. One of his workers inadvertantly cut power to the freezer. Two or three weeks went by. It was summer. In Texas . . . .
Eventually, my friend realized the freezer was without power and lifted the lid. What he found (and smelled) nearly made him vomit. The meat was completely rotten (no surprise) and absolutely swimming with maggots. Hundreds, if not thousands, of them.
I maintain that, despite the freezer’s “seal,” a live fly must have smelled the meat, gotten in there, laid eggs, and started the reproductive cycle 'o flies in the freezer after it had thawed.
But a third friend disagrees. He maintains that there are live fly eggs on or in most meat and other food that can survive freezing, and will happily begin to develop, given the right environment (i.e., allowing the meat or food to rot at room temperature before cooking). He does not think any live fly either did or needed to get in there to start the process.
If my third friend is right, I am so grossed out that I will never eat anything again, cooked or not. I don’t think a) the meat likely had fly eggs on or in it before it was frozen, or b) that, even if it did, the eggs could have survived freezing.
Am I right, or has the world just become too disgusting to contemplate?