Did I store these potatoes incorrectly (found a bug inside)?

Question

I have a 3 pound bag of 'Idaho' brand potatoes that I bought a few weeks ago. They all looked good (firm and no sprouts) when I went to get them the other day except for one. This one had a white patch on it about 2 centimeters in diameter, and then a small red insect just crawled out of it! It was about a centimeter in length and was very dark red in color.

So my questions were:

1. Have I been storing these incorrectly? I have them in a kitchen cabinet since that is the darkest place I have and left them in their original bag.

2. Is it safe to eat the other potatoes? I threw the one in question out, but I am wondering if it's a good idea to throw the others out as well.

Answer 1

Potatoes and the plants foliage are a feast for a lot of insects, some good some not so good, but as far as I'm aware none that will do you any harm. As bmargulies said, don't worry overly about it.

If you're 'really' interested, you can take a look at this site, see if you can spot your 'badguy' :)

Potato Homepage

Answer 2

Potatoes are bug-food. The bug may have wandered into your storage area, or it might have hitched a ride on the spuds. Consider it a vote of confidence that the potatoes were in fact edible. I wouldn't have tossed the one with the insect; I would have 'debugged' it and cooked the rest.