Talk about unwelcome guests. You may not be ready to start implementing bugs into your diet but a new study shows that you're already eating them in massive quantities.

You may not be able to see or taste these tiny bug bits but rest assured mealworms, maggots, roaches, and beetles can be found in everyday foods, especially coffee beans, chocolate, and wheat flour.

While it might be unsettling to realise insects ultimately end up in the food we eat, many cultures across the world eat them whole as a part of their overall diet.

However, one shouldn’t panic—they are perfectly safe to consume. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) actually permits a small number of insects in food products because it would be impossible to filter them all out.

The 16-ounce jar of peanut butter in your pantry can contain up to 136 insect parts before it is deemed contaminated. This may sound bizarre but it’s not uncommon for insect fragments—including their heads, bodies, and legs—to accidentally end up in the food we eat. Bugs are constantly present during the food manufacturing process, from the field where the food is grown to the storage and transit of the food to your grocery store.

The average 4.4-ounce chocolate bar may have up to 74 insect fragments. That means chocolate lovers could be adding nearly 6,000 pieces of bugs to their diets each year.

The FDA legally allows up to 225 insect fragments per 225 gram of pasta before they ban the product from grocery store shelves. That’s around one bug bit for each gram of pasta. Insects usually find their way into pasta through wheat, which can contain up to 75 insect parts per 50 gram (about ¼ cup).

Brewers, beware: As you sip on that steaming-hot cup of coffee, you might also be drinking around 120 insect parts. The FDA approves coffee samples that are less than 10 per cent insect-infested. At that rate, the average coffee drinker could unknowingly consume almost 140,000 insect fragments per year.

Just one cup of raisins can have up to 35 fruit fly eggs and ten whole insects, per FDA guidelines. Luckily, these critters won’t do any harm to your health. The FDA allows for a small amount of insect material that is guaranteed safe for human consumption to pass into our food.

If a 3.5-ounce can of mushrooms contains 19 maggots and 74 mites, it is technically FDA-approved. While it might be gross to imagine chowing down on baby bugs, the fragments are so small that you likely won’t even realise they are there. Plus, there is a lot of nutritional value in these insects. Mealworms, another form of insect larva, provide more protein than chicken or salmon.

Under FDA rules, canned fruit juices can safely contain pieces of one maggot for every 250-millilitre sample. Everything from snails to mites enjoys feasting on fruit juice, too, and may wind up in your next beverage. While the idea of gulping down bugs might trigger your gag reflex, you shouldn’t feel pressured to pass on a morning glass of orange juice. Insects are just a part of the normal process of growing and processing food.

Salt and pepper are considered the yin and yang of condiments—and most of us season our food generously with both. But those days might soon be behind you. Believe it or not, up to 475 bug parts can end up in 50 gram (or ¼ cup) of ground pepper and still be considered safe to eat. That is a lot of insect heads and legs spicing up your meal.

Cinnamon may work magic when it comes to slimming down your waistline, but it also harbors a big secret. The FDA allows up to 400 insect fragments per 50 gram (or ¼ cup) of cinnamon, Although that shouldn’t cause you to skip the spice altogether, just keep in mind that those snickerdoodle cookies are not exactly vegetarian.