My bins don’t have worms added but I always use some of the old material from the bin and start a new one closely.
I have always used a small amount of cooked meat scraps as here In fenced suburban NSW Australia we don’t have to much of a vermin issue. I have once had mice/rat issue with one bin during a big long drought period. But it funnily enough was a garden waste only bin. We throw all food scraps in our food composts. Right or wrong and always have. I’m 42 and can’t remember a time my father has t had a compost going in the backyard. Onion chillis or peppers as called by Americans are fine as long as there is plenty of other material. The worms generally wait till they decompose more it’s not as quick but I never see left over citrus onion meat tomatoes in my compost. I do however get plenty of free tomato plants from using my compost in the garden.
I loved reading elsewhere that to much coffee grinds is bad. So I got a bin full of grinds over a month or two. Left it for 3 months and came back to the most worms I’ve ever seen in my compost.
I’m just a backyard gardener doing things my way. My family is yet to get sick from any food we grow at home. But we may be the exception not the rule.
Do your own tests and enjoy it

Hi Sue
I would be very careful with something like pate – it is high in fat and loaded with salt. On a small scale it might make for an interesting experiment – but definitely make sure it is well covered!

For another take, I looked at this issue a while ago: http://bouldervermicomposting.com/2008/11/22/can-you-put-meat-in-a-worm-bin/

Dan

Hi Anna,
It’s more a mental thing with the onion. I know how potent those volatile oils are in my eyes, so I can only imagine what they must be like on a worm’s skin.
I definitely add raw onion still – just try to make sure it is in moderation, and preferably mixed with other wastes.
Now that I think about it, I seem to recall there having been lots of onion waste in the restaurant waste stream I was receiving a couple of summers ago.
So don’t listen to me!
😆

Hi Anna,
Fatty foods in moderation will be totally fine, but I wouldn’t go and dump waste vegetable oil in your bin or anything. haha
I think your are totally right about the oils found in plants/nuts etc – I’ve seen no issues there (have added plenty of avocado waste and plenty of foods cooked in oil for that matter).
There are many factors at play here. Adding a pound of fresh onion slices to a small enclosed plastic bin will be completely and utterly different from adding them to a much larger open system for example (although I might not do either – raw onions ARE one of the wastes that make me a little nervous just like hot peppers, and thus are only added in moderation. Cooked onions are far less of an issue in my mind)

Absolutely, Keith!
I always smile when I read various dire warnings that people create for different waste materials.
eg. “NO TOMATOES!!!” (meanwhile, the worms LOVE tomatoes! lol)
I still don’t vermicompost dairy wastes, but with the right handling I’m sure it would be fine too.

Grass is one of my favorite food materials for outdoor beds, and pineapple wastes get mixed into my homemade manure on a regular basis.
8)

I was just thinking about the absolutes with redworms the other day. What I’ve found in the short year that I’ve been doing this, is that the worms know more about what worms “do” and “don’t do” than all of the experts combined. I have found masses of redworms in my regular compost bin on pineapple and in mats of grass — both no-nos in the rules. I still follow the rules but now I treat them more like guidelines. Parlay.